South Dakota Man Sentenced to 20 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 Tell Logan Cadotte, 33, of Rapid City, was sentenced to 20 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 and $12,000 in restitution for receipt of child sexual abuse material.

In July 2021, Cadotte was indicted by a federal grand jury for sexual exploitation of a minor, receipt of child pornography, and possession of child pornography. He pleaded guilty to receiving child pornography on May 3.

For several years, Cadotte sexually abused a female minor he was asked to babysit. Cadotte recorded the sexual abuse using his cellphone. When law enforcement executed a search warrant on Cadotte’s residence in February 2021, they located images and videos of the minor female being sexually abused by Cadotte. He also possessed hundreds of sexually explicit depictions of other minors, some of whom were identified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

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. Cadotte 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.