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Zackery Putney, Sawyer, sentenced to 4 ½ years, 10 years probation, for possession of child porn

Zackery Lee Putney, 41, Sawyer, was sentenced on Wednesday in U.S. District Court to 55 months in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release by U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Traynor in Bismarck, on a federal charge of possession of child pornography.

Putney was originally charged with 10 counts of Class C felony possession of child pornography in district court in Minot in June 2019, but the case was transferred to federal court for prosecution. According to court records in that case, Putney had child porn on his laptop computer and on a tablet. The Ward County Sheriff’s Office had received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that someone at Putney’s residence had uploaded the porn to the internet. The sheriff’s department, working with the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation, obtained a search warrant for Putney’s home and searched it. According to court documents in the federal case, Putney was in the process of looking at child porn in the bathroom of his residence when the officers arrived and knocked on his door. Putney answered his door wearing no clothing.

The defense had asked for a sentence of 60 months in prison, or five years, while the prosecution had recommended 97 months in prison, or eight years, and five years of supervised release.

The judge ordered that Putney serve the remainder of his sentence at FCI Elkton in Lisbon, Ohio, and recommends that he participate in a sex offender treatment program while he is there and that Putney participate in a residential drug abuse treatment program while in the prison. Putney will also be required to register as a sex offender.

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