By Jalen Maki
Tomahawk Leader Editor
MERRILL – A man facing child pornography charges in Lincoln County is now facing a federal indictment for similar charges.
In Nov. 2020, Jason D. Ridolfi, 41, originally from Kenosha, was charged with two felony counts of possession of child pornography and a felony count of child sexual exploitation. The charges stemmed from an investigation that began on Nov. 19, 2020 when a Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office investigator was contacted by a Special Agent with the Wisconsin Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI), referencing cyber tip line reports received from the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
DCI informed the Sheriff’s Office that it was believed that Ridolfi had uploaded images of child pornography in Aug. 2020, according to a post on the Sheriff’s Office’s Facebook page.
Investigators also believed that Ridolfi was staying at a home outside of Merrill.
“A deputy was able to make contact with the suspect and he was arrested at a business in the Town of Scott after he agreed to meet the deputy there,” the post stated.
According to a criminal complaint filed with the Lincoln County District Attorney’s Office, Ridolfi allegedly admitted to investigators that he had taken the photos and told them that the victims were children of friends from Kenosha.
A cell phone and tablet containing additional pornographic images were seized after a search warrant was executed at Ridolfi’s residence.
Ridolfi appeared in Lincoln County Circuit Court on Nov. 20, facing the three felony charges. He was ordered held on $250,000 cash bond with conditions of having no contact with the victim in the case, having no contact with any parks, having no contact with minors, not leaving the state of Wisconsin, not possessing any electronic devices that can connect with the internet and not possessing cameras. Ridolfi was also ordered to surrender any passports and not to obtain a new passport.
According to court records, Ridolfi remains in the Lincoln County Jail.
In the federal indictment returned on Wednesday, Aug. 11, it is alleged that Ridolfi transported a visual image of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct into a Google account in Oct. 2020.
With the additional federal indictment, Ridolfi now faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum of 30 years in a federal prison on each of the production charges, as well as a mandatory minimum of five years and a maximum of 20 years on the transportation charge.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Altman is handling the prosecution with the U.S. Attorney – Western District of Wisconsin.
The investigation was a joint effort by the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, DCI, and the Kenosha Police Department.