Dylan Ryan

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of South Dakota, Dylan Ryan, 25, of Dell Rapids, South Dakota, was sentenced on October 15, 2024, for attempted receipt of child pornography. U.S. District Judge Lawrence L. Piersol imposed a sentence of five years in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release, and a special assessment of $100 to the Federal Crime Victims Fund. After his release from federal prison, Ryan must register as a sex offender. The office says he was immediately remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service. The Reddit connection is stated in the release. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the conviction stemmed from an incident on March 9, 2024, when Ryan, using his cellular phone and the social media application Reddit, attempted to receive images of child pornography from an undercover agent posing as a minor. The office says Ryan drove to a park in Sioux Falls to meet the undercover agent and was subsequently arrested. The release also states that Ryan was indicted by a federal grand jury in April and pleaded guilty on July 29, 2024, so the sentence followed a guilty plea rather than a trial. The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, the Justice Department's nationwide initiative against child sexual exploitation and abuse. It was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the South Dakota Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the Sioux Falls Police Department, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth A. Ebert-Webb prosecuted it. Dakota News Now reported the same sentence and the same use of Reddit. The records reviewed do not identify a subreddit or a Reddit username, and they do not say that Reddit reported the conduct.