Tim Ryan, tryan@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader Photo by Tim Ryan Christopher Ehlenfeldt, seated beside defense attorney Paul Zilles, addresses the court during a sentencing hearing on child porn possession charges in Shawano-Menominee County Circuit Court on Friday.
A Birnamwood man convicted of 54 counts of child porn possession was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison and another 10 years extended supervision.
Christopher J. Ehlenfeldt, 39, maintained he was innocent during a long and rambling statement to the court, and said he accepted a plea deal on the advice of his attorney only because he believed the Shawano-Menominee County District Attorney’s Office would continue to target him and his family.
“I was told they would go after my son,” he said.
District Attorney Greg Parker said there was no truth to Ehlenfeldt’s claims.
Ehlenfeldt maintained the child porn files found on his computer had been downloaded by his ex-wife’s boyfriend.
“My house has been broken into many times,” he said.
He also berated his own defense counsel, seated beside him in the courtroom, saying his attorney had “dropped the ball horribly” and failed to introduce evidence he maintained would have proved his innocence.
Ehlenfeldt had initially been charged with 69 counts of possessing child porn and one felony count of child sexual exploitation until pleading no contest to 54 of the counts in July.
Shawano County Sheriff’s Detective Chris Gamm testified that more than 3,000 videos were found on Ehlenfeldt’s computer, 90 percent of which were child pornography.
He said some of the content was different than in many other child porn cases because they involved very small children, under the age of 3, being abused by a woman.
The videos also included a slide-show tutorial instructing how to groom a young child for sexual assault.
The court also heard via telephone from an attorney representing two of the girls victimized in the videos.
Now grown, the women continue to suffer emotional damage from the victimization that is renewed every time someone downloads one of the videos from the Internet, attorney Carol Hepburn said.
Parker told the court that people like Ehlenfeldt keep the child porn industry going.
“It’s heartbreaking and it’s maddening that people in society continue to perpetuate this crime,” he said.
Parker recommended a 15-year prison sentence and 25 years of extended supervision.
Defense attorney Paul Zilles noted that a psychological evaluation of Ehlenfeldt determined he was a low risk for re-offending.
He asked the court for a prison sentence of five to 10 years and 10 years of extended supervision.
In passing sentence, Judge James Habeck said Ehlenfeldt’s statement to the court showed he was still in denial regarding his crimes.
“He views himself as a victim and blames others,” Habeck said.
Parker said after the hearing that he had asked for a longer term of extended supervision because “it’s always my position that these people, these collectors of child pornography, should be supervised for as long as possible.”
But he lauded the prison sentence handed down by Habeck.
“I think this was a good and just sentence,” he said. “We will continue to pursue these child pornographers in our county.”
According to the criminal complaint, Shawano County sheriff’s detectives scanning an Internet file sharing service known to traffic in child porn turned up an IP address in Birnamwood in early 2014. Authorities executed a search warrant at Ehlenfeldt’s residence in August 2014.
Ehlenfeldt is also charged in Portage County with 29 counts of possessing child pornography and one count of capturing an image of nudity.
He is scheduled for a plea hearing in that case on Friday.