Former Adams County deputy sentenced to over 3 years for child pornography

A former Adams County sheriff's deputy was sentenced to over three years in prison after being convicted of accessing child pornography. He faced the possibility of up to 20 years in prison.

Christopher Mark Haenel was given a sentence of 41 months, followed by five years of supervised release, and ordered to pay various fines, including:

• A $5,000 special assessment pursuant to the Victims of Sex Trafficking Act of 2015;
• A $500 special assessment and mandatory restitution of at least $3,000 per requesting victim pursuant to the Amy, Vicky, and Andy Child Pornography Victim Assistance Act of 2018;
• A $100 special assessment.

Haenel must also now register as a sex offender and will no longer be allowed to own firearms, among other court orders and restrictions.

Haenel was sentenced last week but Acting United States Attorney Nicholas Vassallo announced the sentencing on Monday. A charge of distributing child pornography was dropped against Haenel.

He was indicted in May and arrested in June, then plead guilty to the remaining charge in August.

Haenel, a 41-year-old retired Adams County sheriff's deputy living in Sheridan, Wyoming, came onto law enforcement's radar when the social media platform Kik reported that he was sharing child pornography on its service.

A federal indictment says he used two separate iPhones to access the material.

This case was investigated by the Homeland Security Investigations Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation ICAC.

An Adams County Sheriff's Office spokesman said Haenel worked at the sheriff's office from April 2005 to September 2020.

The court recommended Haenel be housed in Federal Correctional Institute Englewood, which the U.S. Bureau of Prisons describes as a "low security federal correctional institution with an adjacent minimum security satellite camp and a detention center."

Haenel's attorney, Ryan P. Healy, of the Healy Law Firm in Wyoming, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.