Burnsville Man Charged with Possession of Child Pornography

A Burnsville man serving time in prison for a first-degree criminal sexual conduct conviction has been charged with possession of child pornography.

Joseph Matthias Berendt, also known as Joseph Mathias Greeman, 33, is serving a 12-year sentence at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in St. Cloud. He pleaded guilty in November 2010 to the charge and was sentenced in January 2011.

He is now charged with one count of possession of child pornography, a felony with a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

According to the criminal complaint, Burnsville police executed a search warrant at Berendt’s home on March 30, 2010, and seized items including a computer tower and an external hard drive.

Berendt was home at the time of the search and was arrested on the criminal sexual conduct charge.

Berendt waived his Miranda rights, made “admissions regarding the related investigation” and told police that he had “thousands” of child pornography images and videos saved on his computer’s external hard drive, according to the complaint.

Police sought and obtained a search warrant for the hard drive  and several computers in April 2010 and conducted a forensic examination on the data.

Authorities uncovered thousands of images and numerous child pornography videos, including children as young as toddler age, according to the complaint.

Police said most of the images appeared to have been created between June 2009 and January 2010.

Investigators found 22 videos of children engaging in sexual conduct located in sub-directories labeled “software” and “videos,” created between August 2008 and January 2010, the complaint charges.