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Rochester man sentenced to 5 years for child sexual abuse material

Post-Bulletin - 6/14/2022

Jun. 14—ROCHESTER — A Rochester man was sentenced in Olmsted County District Court Tuesday, June, 14, 2022, to five years for possessing child sexual abuse material by District Judge Kathy Wallace.

Arkady Pavlovich Pichurin, 27,

pleaded guilty in December to 10 felony charges of possession of pornographic work

. As a result of the plea, 49 other felony charges were dismissed, including 21 counts of use of minor in sexual performance/pornographic work, 21 counts of possession of pornographic work of a person younger than 13, and four counts of soliciting a juvenile.

Upon release, Pichurin will have to register as a predatory offender.

His charges are the result of a January 2021 search warrant executed by members of the Rochester Police Department following a complaint regarding child sexual abuse material. Pichurin's laptop was taken as a result of the search warrant.

Assisant Olmsted County Attorney Arianna Whitney called the Puchrin cases significant in her office.

"What started as a possession case quickly turned to a manufacturing and soliciting a minor to engage in sexual performance case thanks to the dedicated investigators of the Rochester Police Department. Mr. Pichurin's cases turned into six referrals to the Olmsted County Attorney's Office. As the cases progressed and victims were identified, a request was made to the MN United States Attorney's Office for prosecution," she wrote in an email to the Post Bulletin.

His state sentence will run concurrently with a

17-year federal prison sentence

handed down to Pichurin in U.S. District Court in Minnesota in March for producing sexually explicit material with a child between the ages of 9 and 10 years old.

Court documents in that case state that throughout approximately a year, Pichurin sexually exploited at least 20 minor girls, using them to produce child pornography.

The Olmsted County Attorney's Office and the U.S. Attorney's Office worked together to figure out what could be charged federally and what would be charged locally, according to Whitney.

"I feel like this sentence imposes justice, not only for the community, but for the victims. This is the most egregious case of CSAM that I have prosecuted, it spanned multiple states with multiple victims," Whitney wrote in an email to the Post Bulletin.

Whitney wrote that there are large discrepancies on what the federal government can impose for a sentence and what the state can impose, adding that the most serious and egregious offenders are prosecuted federally.

"We were fortunate to have a dedicated investigator on this case who worked countless hours to identify victims, as well as FBI agents who assisted in the transfer of the case to the (assistant U.S. Attorney), and finally the AUSA who was willing to work with the State to achieve it's and the greater community's goals," she wrote. "Child sexual abuse material is a crime that often goes unnoticed, but with the ease of access to the internet and social media we are seeing a sharp rise in cases, especially during the onset of the COVID pandemic."

Pichurin's lawyer, Jay Adkins, of Rochester, declined to comment about the case.

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