South Dakota Man Sentenced to 5 Years for Receipt of Child Sexual Abuse Material

RAPID CITY, S.D. — The U.S. Attorney for the District of South Dakota announced May 21 the sentencing of a Rapid City man convicted of receipt of child sexual abuse material.

T Jay Joseph Sullivan, 29, was sentenced to five years in federal prison followed by five years of supervised release and ordered to pay a $100 special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund. Sullivan will also be required to register as a sex offender under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.

This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) St. Paul, the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation, the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office and the Rapid City Police Department.

Sullivan was indicted for receipt of child sexual abuse material and transportation of obscene matters by a federal grand jury in March 2023. He pleaded guilty Feb. 14, 2024.

The investigation originated from a cyber tip that reported child sexual abuse material associated with Sullivan’s Facebook account. Investigators learned Sullivan messaged a 13-year-old girl over Facebook, sent her sexually explicit images, and requested that she send him sexually explicit images. The 13-year-old girl sent Sullivan images that constituted child sexual abuse material. During the investigation, detectives learned Sullivan also requested nude images from a different 13-year-old girl by using Facebook Messenger and sent that girl sexually explicit images. All the messages and images were in Sullivan’s Facebook account.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by the U.S. attorneys’ offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims.

HSI St. Paul oversees offices in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

HSI encourages the public to report crimes and suspicious activity through its toll-free tip line at 877-4-HSI-TIP. Callers may remain anonymous.

Learn more about HSI’s mission to increase public safety in your community on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @HSISaintPaul.