South Dakota Man Sentenced to 14 Years for Receipt of Child Pornography Following HSI St. Paul Investigation

RAPID CITY, S.D. — The U.S. Attorney for the District of South Dakota announced July 29 that Jeffery Dean Sipe, 31, of Sturgis, was sentenced to 14 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 for receipt of child sexual abuse material.

In November 2023, a federal grand jury indicted Sipe for sexual exploitation of a minor, enticement of a minor using the internet and receipt of child pornography. He pleaded guilty on May 3.

In May 2022, a local minor reported Sipe had solicited images of child sexual abuse from her and had forcibly raped her when she was between the ages of 15 and 17. Law enforcement found sexually explicit messages from Sipe in his Snapchat account that directed the victim to pose in certain ways and send him sexually explicit images. Multiple sexually explicit images of the minor were located on Sipe’s electronic devices.

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

Report suspected child exploitation to the HSI Tip Line at 877-4-HSI-TIP or through the CyberTipline on the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's website.

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