A former paraeducator who solicited child pornography through online forums and performed sexual acts on a minor has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.
The defendant, 24-year-old Glen Robert Anderson of Coon Rapids, was sentenced last week after pleading guilty in June to four charges. Those include two counts of producing child pornography and one count each of enticement of a minor and interstate communications with intent to extort.
He was also sentenced to 12 years of supervised release.
From 2016 to 2021, Anderson used his role as administrator for his own gaming chat website known as "The Republic" and "The Public Community" to groom and sexually exploit boys, the Department of Justice (DOJ) wrote in a news release. The forum signup also required users to submit their ages.
One victim from Ohio, who is now an adult, reported that Anderson solicited pornographic images for several years starting when the victim was 13 and Anderson was 18. Anderson would coerce boys on his site using in-game perks, privileges and other gifts, the DOJ said.
Anderson coerced a 13-year-old boy to engage in sexually explicit acts to make pornographic images and videos and later threatened to release them if the boy did not respond to demands, the DOJ said.
Another victim aged 14 to 15 met Anderson through the dating app Grindr and continued speaking with him over Snapchat before Anderson offered to build the victim a computer in exchange for sexual acts, prosecutors wrote in their position on sentencing.
On March 10, 2022, the FBI conducted a search warrant on Anderson's home. The night before, Anderson was seen with a 14-year-old whom he dropped off before going to work as a substitute teacher the next day, prosecutors said. Leading up to the search he was working at Anoka High School, but he has not been employed in the district since, prosecutors said.
Anderson met the 14-year-old while working as a substitute paraprofessional in the child's class, according to prosecutors, who said he sought out jobs in order to victimize more minors.
"Anderson's employment goals were transparent and solely focused on gaining access to children in order to find additional victims and sexually exploit them," the prosecutors wrote.
While the government argued for a higher 35-year sentence, Anderson's attorne, Christa Groshek, argued for the minimum 15-year sentence.
The defense asked the court to consider Anderson's history of mental health problems going back to 2006. Groshek did not return requests for comment Monday.
The defense also pointed to Anderson's troubled upbringing after his parents separated and his mother gained custody. Many of Anderson's formative years were described as a "nightmare life" in which his mother kept him away from his peers, verbally insulted him and locked him in the basement, Groshek wrote. His mother also allegedly stunted his growth by withholding food while forcing Anderson to lift weights.
The isolation led Anderson to seek friends by talking with strangers on the internet, and men began preying on and grooming him. Anderson was raped on more than one occasion, and continued to be a target for abuse as an adult, Groshek wrote.
"Mr. Anderson continued to be an online target for sexual abuse because long into his adulthood, he continued to resemble a minor and given his emotionally stunted self-structured upbringing," the defense wrote.
The defense wrote that the neglect from his childhood is what led him to seek relationships with minors online later in life.
