Washington County man sentenced for child pornography

A Washington County man was sentenced to 240 months in a federal prison for one count of receiving and distributing child pornography on Friday, Dec. 11, 2009.

Lee Michael Ehret, formerly Lee Michael Franzen, 26, of Brighton, will serve the 20-year sentence, a federal maximum, on top of the state sentence he is serving after Ehret was found guilty of molesting an 11-year-old girl in Jefferson County three years ago.

United States District Judge John A. Jarvey said Ehret was “a dangerous pedophile who can't control himself.”

The investigation into Ehret's child pornography dealings began when he sent his computer to an acquaintance for repairs. The acquaintance contacted authorities after they discovered the illegal images on his computer. Ehret later admitted that he had used peer to peer file sharing software Limewire to get the images.

Authorities said he had been collecting young girls clothing. Authorities also found that Ehret had been in contact with an 18-year-old woman from Pennsylvania, and Ehret said that the woman was willing to pay Ehret to take her two-year-old daughter back to Iowa to live with him.

Following his 20-year sentence, Ehret will be under supervised release for another 20 years.