Man Charged For Taking 'Sneaky' Photos Of Girls, Posting Them Online
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A 20-year-old Eagan man faces more than two dozen misdemeanor charges for allegedly taking photos of girls and posting them online without their knowledge.
Tyler Michael Sauve is charged with 21 counts of disorderly conduct, five counts of criminal defamation of character and one count of public nuisance, court documents show.
According to a criminal complaint, a forensic analyst working for the Wisconsin Department of Justice had told officials with the Eagan Police Department in April that Sauve might be involved in crimes against children.
The analyst had found information on Sauve on a Russian website that accompanied numerous photo galleries containing images of girls, and girls' backsides. Some of the images show prepubescent girls from an Eagan neighborhood called Country Hollow.
When Eagan Police showed the photos to the girls and their parents, they were alarmed and offended. The complaint states that 21 people were upset by the photos, which Sauve, who had no physical contact with the girls, took down after talking to police.
While the images were not pornographic, the website comments on them were sexual in nature, police said.
"Because pictures were taken of juveniles without their knowledge, posted on a Russian-based website that's known for child photography and the comments that then followed those photos, those are the concerns that were raised, and that's quite frankly the creepiness of those concerns that initiated this investigation," said detective Desiree Schroepfer with Eagan Police.
When police spoke with Sauve, he said he was "sneaky" when he took the photos. He also said that it was "not OK" for him to post the pictures online, which he said he did between December 2013 and June 2014.
Debbie Burke lives down the street from where Suave and his family live.
"It's sick," she said on Tuesday. "There's a lot of sick people out there, and [Sauve is] turning into one of them."
WCCO-TV went to Suave's home, and a young woman answered, saying she would not discuss what happened.
Suave is free until a court date in later this month. If convicted, he could face jail time and thousands of dollars in fines.
