A former special agent with Homeland Security Investigations admitted Thursday in federal court to taking at least 10 photos and videos of himself and a 17-year-old girl engaged in sex acts on several occasions and then sending them to her.
Timothy Ryan Gregg, 52, of Eagan, who was also an FBI task force member, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis to the sole count of transportation of visual depictions of a minor engaging in sexual conduct after images and videos were found on her cellphone on May 29.
Timothy Ryan Gregg (Courtesy of the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office)
Under questioning by U.S. District Judge Joan Ericksen, Gregg said the girl told him that she was 19 years old after meeting her through the dating/meet-up app Tinder. He admitted that he later learned she was 17 by looking her up through a law enforcement database and that he still met with her and sent her sexually explicit photos and videos afterward.
During the hearing, Gregg struggled several times upon questioning by Ericksen and stopped to gain his composure before responding.
He became emotional when Ericksen asked him why he mostly met up with the girl on Sundays. After a long pause, he replied: “Because I was lying to my wife.”
When Ericksen asked about his law enforcement career, which stretched three decades, he replied, while fighting back tears: “Ever since I was 5, I knew I wanted to be in law enforcement.”
On the day he was arrested, June 3, Gregg was supposed to assist fellow FBI task force agents in a raid in Minneapolis. Instead, he was called in to the FBI field office in St. Paul.
“I felt like in a blink of an eye, my career was over,” Gregg said in court. “So it was a moment of panic.”
Gregg’s attorney Ryan Pacyga then told the judge his arrest came after he drove around for several hours with his service weapon and threatening to take his own life while FBI agents followed his car.
Gregg waived his right to have a grand jury consider an indictment. He remains in custody at the Sherburne County jail ahead of his sentencing, which has yet to be scheduled.
Sentencing guidelines call for between 14 and 17½ years in prison, although Pacyga said after the hearing that he will request a five-year term, the mandatory minimum.
Father found cellphone videos
According to the criminal complaint, the girl’s father told police that he found on her cellphone, which she had left behind in a car, multiple sexually explicit images and videos, including some of her and a man engaged in sex acts. The man was identified by law enforcement as Gregg.
The cellphone showed that Gregg and the teen had sent text messages to each other and naked photos. Gregg also sent her photos and videos of the two engaged in sex in a hotel room.
The girl told law enforcement that she had met Gregg through Tinder. She said he picked her up multiple times, mostly on Sundays, and that they went to a hotel, where he took photos and videos of them engaged in sex.
A check of hotel records by law enforcement showed that Gregg rented a room four times in March and twice in both April and in May, all on Sundays. Hotel employees said that Gregg would rent the rooms by himself and then bring a guest inside the hotel through the parking ramp.
Gregg used his “official ICE/HS email address to make the hotel reservations,” the complaint states.
Other officers charged
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Gregg was among three Minnesota law enforcement officers charged federally for alleged sex crimes in just over a month’s time.
Minnesota state trooper Jeremy Francis Plonski, 30, of Shakopee was charged with production of child pornography. He pleaded guilty to the charge Oct. 8, admitting to repeatedly sexually assaulting a toddler girl while recording the abuse and then sharing the videos with someone he met through the Telegram app. Under a plea agreement, Plonski faces between 23 and 28 years in prison. He remains jailed ahead of sentencing, which has not been scheduled.
Anthony John Crowley, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer from Minnetonka, was charged June 6 with uploading child pornography to the Kik app in 2022. Crowley, 52, pleaded guilty Sept. 26 to one count of possessing child pornography and remains ahead of sentencing, which has not been scheduled.
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