Pennington County, MN (trfnews.i234.me)—Kyle Thomas Grochowski, 42, from Warren, was sentenced for two felony charges related to the possession of pornographic material involving minors. For the first charge, he was sentenced to 20 months in prison, which was stayed for five years. As part of his sentence, he must serve 30 days in jail starting January 24 by 5 p.m. with work release and Sentence to Serve privileges, if eligible. He may be allowed to attend treatment during his sentence. Grochowski will serve five years of supervised probation.
As part of his conditions, Grochowski must register as a predatory offender. He is prohibited from contacting anyone under 18 without prior permission from his supervising agent or treatment team. He is also barred from entering parks, playgrounds, and school properties without authorization. Furthermore, he cannot access the internet without approval, must submit to polygraph tests when directed, and provide a DNA sample. He is also prohibited from owning or possessing firearms, ammunition, or explosives. A fine of $135 was imposed.
For the second possession charge, Grochowski was sentenced to 25 months in prison, also stayed for five years. He will remain under supervised probation for an additional five years under the same conditions.
The charges stemmed from a report made on January 28, 2022, by a woman who had shown a video taken from Grochowski’s phone to another individual. The video reportedly showed a young girl wearing a thong. The woman, a former romantic partner and roommate of Grochowski, informed the police that Grochowski had a previous conviction for possessing child pornography. She reported that he had recently started behaving inappropriately around her minor daughters, who also lived with them.
Search warrants were executed at Grochowski’s two residences: one in Thief River Falls and another in Warren, which was listed as his primary address. Law enforcement seized several electronic devices, including laptops, tablets, gaming consoles, and hard drives from both locations.
Analysis of Grochowski’s phone revealed two videos featuring prepubescent girls. The first video, lasting 10 minutes and 29 seconds, depicted a girl wearing a see-through thong and exposing parts of her body. The second video, lasting 12 minutes and 26 seconds, showed another girl undressing and exposing herself.
The videos were sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for identification, but no matches were found. On November 9, 2022, a child abuse pediatrician from the Sanford Children’s Child Abuse Referral and Evaluation Clinic confirmed that the girls in the videos were under the age of 18.
According to the complaint, Grochowski had a prior conviction in 2009 in Pennington County for possession of child pornography.
I’m Chris Harper, reporting for trfnews.i234.me