A Woodbury man was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison Wednesday for extorting teenage girls he met on social media to send him sexually explicit photos and videos.
Timothy Lennard Gebhart, 38, admitted in July to coercing two girls, ages 16 and 14, to engage in sexually explicit conduct through video chat, which he recorded. He then sent the videos and photos to other minors in an attempt to get more.
Timothy Lennard Gebhart (Courtesy of the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office)
Prosecutors said Gebhart executed the “sextortion” scheme between July 2021 and September 2023 while using aliases and posing as someone younger, including as a teenager. He extorted money and other items of value from the 16-year-old by threatening to send the videos to her family, friends and classmates.
The girls are among six victims — from Minnesota, Texas, Indiana and elsewhere — who authorities were able to identify in Gebhart’s scheme, according to prosecutors. Additional victims have not been identified.
“The scheme continued for more than two years and didn’t stop until the police stopped him,” Assistant U.S. Attorney David Classen said in his sentencing argument before Judge Jerry Blackwell in U.S. District Court in St. Paul.
Classen called Gebhart’s crimes “harmful, and cruel to the extreme.”
“These are the crimes that shatter childhoods and ruin lives,” Classen said, adding research shows victims go on to struggle with a lifetime of anxiety and fear of physical contact.
Gebhart pleaded guilty in March to all four charges in the June 2024 indictment: two counts of child pornography production, and one count each of child pornography distribution and interstate communication with the intent to extort.
The prosecution sought the 30-year term, while Gebhart’s attorney asked for a mandatory minimum 15-year sentence. Gebhart will be on intensive supervised release for 10 years following incarceration.
Intimidation, blackmail
According to court documents, Gebhart used Instagram and Snapchat to find his victims. He convinced them to send photos and videos of themselves engaged in sexually explicit conduct, sometimes in exchange for money.
Gebhart then targeted the victims’ social media contacts to find more victims to exploit, prosecutors said. He mentioned his relationships with the new victims to gain their trust.
Gebhart knew the ages of his victims because they either told him or it was apparent from their social media profiles, prosecutors said.
After receiving videos and photos, Gebhart turned to intimidation and blackmail to receive more, the indictment said. He told one victim in a November 2021 message that if she didn’t call him in one hour he would “ruin your (expletive) day. Wonder what your family will think of those pics I have of you.”
Gebhart also sent his victims “graphic and explicit videos of suicides and violent murders to coerce and intimidate the minor victims,” the indictment read.
Gebhart declined to address the court before hearing his sentence.
Reports rising
Sextortion is a growing issue, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Every day last year the organization received nearly 100 reports of financial sextortion, which involves a predator demanding money for keeping sexual images private.
Gebhart’s case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, go to justice.gov/psc.
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