Court Affirms Sentence of a Minn. Man for Illicit Sexual Conduct with a Minor

| 1/4/2012

The U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the sentence of 36-year-old Darrin Anderson of Middle River, Minn., on one count of traveling to engage in illicit sexual conduct.

Anderson used Facebook as a tool to target girls as young as 13 who lived in the Red River Valley for sex. Anderson was sentenced 144 months in prison to be followed by a lifetime of supervised release.

In August of 2009, Darrin Anderson, using the alias Tyler Anderson, created an
online account on the social networking site Facebook. Using the fictitious identity, the defendant contacted the 13-year-old female victim in this case. Eventually, the fictitious Tyler Anderson introduced the victim to Darrin Anderson online.

Darrin Anderson, using his real identity, then began texting the victim and offered to pay the victim cash in exchange for sexual favors. Eventually, the defendant traveled from Wallhala to East Grand Forks in order to engage in sex with the 13-year-old victim.

Shortly thereafter, the incident was reported to the East Grand Forks Police
Department. Law enforcement interviewed the 13-year-old victim who told the officers that Tyler Anderson (a/k/a defendant Darrin Anderson) introduced her to Darrin Anderson on Facebook. Law enforcement then obtained a search warrant for Tyler Anderson`s Facebook profile and chats.

According to information provided by Facebook, Darrin Anderson, using the identity Tyler Anderson, engaged in hundreds of private chats with local adolescent girls and attempted to sexually solicit them. In one instance, he revealed to a young female that he was not Tyler Anderson, but that in reality he was Darrin Anderson.

On Feb.16, 2011, Anderson pleaded guilty to traveling from Wallhala, ND, where he was employed at the time, to East Grand Forks, Minn., to have sex with a 13-year-old girl in exchange for $300.

On Oct. 21, 2011, Anderson appealed the length of his sentence as substantively
unreasonable. Today, the Eighth Circuit affirmed Judge Erickson`s sentence by holding that the sentence was reasonable given the circumstances of Anderson`s offense.

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