MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio
by Mike Cronin, Minnesota Public Radio,
Tom Scheck, Minnesota Public Radio
October 8, 2013
ST. PAUL, Minn. — St. Paul police say they are reopening a closed child pornography investigation involving a priest in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
Police had closed the case looking into allegations of child pornography found on computer files once belonging to the Rev. Jonathan Shelley for lack of evidence.
Circumstances changed after Joe Ternus, of Hugo, Minn., gave police files which came from a computer that once belonged to Shelley. The files contained thousands of pornographic images, including some that may have included minors, according to a private investigation firm retained by the archdiocese.
Ternus discovered the images 10 years ago after a parish official gave Shelley’s computer to Ternus’ father. Ternus on Saturday said he contacted St. Paul police to tell them that he made a copy of a large part of Shelley’s hard drive before he turned over the computer to the archdiocese.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.