photo by: KBI Sex Offenders Registry

Brandon Michael Torneden

A Kansas City, Kansas, man has been sentenced in Douglas County District Court to 24 months of prison for attempting to possess hundreds of images of child pornography, but the sentence was suspended to probation.

Brandon Michael Torneden, 37, was charged with two counts of attempted sexual exploitation of a child, a level-seven felony. Torneden was charged in March of 2021 and pleaded no contest to the charges in March of 2022. The charges list two incidents, one in October 2019 and one in September 2020.

Judge Sally Pokorny sentenced Torneden on May 4 to 12 months in prison for each count of attempted sexual exploitation of a child, with the sentences to run consecutively. The prison sentence was suspended to 24 months of probation, according to court records. Torneden has no additional criminal history in Douglas County.

The charges came after Lawrence police were tipped off by the National Center for Missing and Endangered Children in August of 2020 to more than 600 images of children under the age of 8 on a laptop registered to an IP address in Lawrence, according to a police affidavit.

Police identified two Google accounts associated with the laptop; one of the accounts belonged to Torneden. Police then interviewed Torneden, who admitted to owning the Google account but denied owning the laptop, according to the affidavit.

In September of 2020, detectives executed a search warrant at Torneden’s residence, then in Winchester, and located the laptop, according to the affidavit.

The other Google account owner’s name was redacted from the affidavit. However, arrested and charged at the same time as Torneden was his wife, April C. Ticer, 25, of Kansas City, Kansas.

Ticer was charged with sexual exploitation of a child, but the charges were dismissed without prejudice — meaning they could be filed again — in January of 2022, according to court records.

As previously reported by the Journal-World, new charges were filed against Ticer in March of 2022. She was charged with three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor by promoting a sexually explicit performance of a child under the age of 14, and an additional 50 counts of exploitation of a minor involving possession of media of a child under the age of 18, according to charging documents in the case.

Ticer is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on July 1.

Torneden must register with the Kansas sex offenders registry for life as a part of his plea agreement.