A 26-year-old Albert Lea man was charged with 12 counts of child pornography possession this week after more than a year of investigation by the Albert Lea Police Department, the Minneapolis Police Department and the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

Travis Jon Holst will next appear on the charges in Freeborn County District Court on Monday. The charges are all felonies.

According to court records, the investigation into Holst began locally in January of 2009, when Albert Lea detective Frank Kohl was contacted by the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force in St. Paul about a forthcoming case regarding a peer-to-peer child pornography investigation in the city.

Documents state Kohl learned that, during undercover ICAC operations, members of the National ICAC force had identified a computer at an Albert Lea residence that was offering to participate in the distribution of known child pornography.

An investigation had been opened by the Minneapolis Police Department in December 2008 into the matter. Officers browsed the suspected computer and discovered that at that time it had about 52 files for sharing, of which 16 contained known child pornography, according to court records.

After an administrative subpoena was issued by the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office to the Internet service provider, authorities were able to find out the address and subscriber of the computer’s Internet.

In March 2009, Kohl and Albert Lea detective Ben Mortensen executed a search warrant on the residence, 2217 Windsor Road, with two agents from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension computer forensics lab.

During the search, authorities also interviewed Holst and his father.

Allegedly seized during the search were paperwork, CDs and DVDs, a glass pipe with white residue, an HP hard drive, miscellaneous computer equipment and a Blackberry phone, among other items.

Holst’s Honda was also searched. Allegedly seized from the car was a glass pipe and a dugout with “green matter.”

Based upon the investigation of the computer hard drive seized from Holst, authorities found 12 multimedia files containing child pornography, records state. They state all 12 of the files had been intentionally downloaded onto the computer and were stored under the settings “travis” and in “My Documents.”

The files had file names that implied that the videos contained child pornography, according to investigation records.

Documents state Holst originally told authorities he did not have any child pornography on his computer that he knew about, and told them if there were child pornography files on his computer, he did not know how they got there.

He also stated no one else used his computer.

Holst later admitted to downloading movies onto his computer but stated he did not watch any of the child pornography movies, documents state. He said he was unable to delete the files after they were on his computer.

No child pornography was found on any of the CDs or DVDs seized.

Holst faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $5,000 fine for each charge.