A former Homeland Security agent is headed to prison for seven years after he admitted sexually exploiting a 17-year-old girl and creating videos of the abuse. Timothy Gregg, 53, is one of three Minnesota-based law enforcement officials who pleaded guilty in 2025 to federal charges related to child sex abuse materials.
The teen’s father called police when he found photos and videos on his daughter’s phone of her with a much older man. The victim said she connected with Gregg on a dating app and met him at hotels at least nine times in early 2025.
According to court documents, the teen said she believed the sex was consensual. While she was above Minnesota’s age of consent, the videos that Gregg made are illegal because she was under 18.
When he pleaded guilty to a count of transporting child sex abuse images, Gregg said the girl had listed her age as 19 on the app, but he also admitted that he continued with the relationship even after learning her real age from a law enforcement database.
Gregg surrendered to federal agents in June 2025 with the help of defense attorney Ryan Pacyga, former Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson, and an FBI negotiator. In an October interview with MPR News, Pacyga said that he spent hours driving around with Gregg, who he feared was suicidal, and convinced him to hand over his weapons.
In court on Thursday, Pacyga asked Judge Joan Ericksen to impose the five-year mandatory minimum prison term. Assistant U.S. Attorney LeeAnn Bell requested a sentence at the low end of federal guidelines, or 14 years.
Ericksen said five years is too little time for such a serious offense.
“It’s a gross abuse of the power of an adult to engage in sexual activity with someone who’s only 17 years old,” Ericksen said. “It’s not just a statutory technicality. There are developmental milestones that haven’t been reached yet.”
But Ericksen also noted that Gregg did not leverage his position as a Homeland Security agent to prey on the victim, though he did have the illegal images in a sensitive compartmented information facility, or SCIF, which she said was “quite a bad fact.”
The judge also said there was no evidence that Gregg tried to trade or send the images to anyone else, and he’s unlikely to reoffend. In addition to the 84-month sentence, Ericksen also ordered Gregg to pay $1,000 in restitution per an agreement with the victim plus $35,000 to a fund for victims of child sex abuse material.
The family submitted written victim impact statements, which remain under seal to protect the teen’s privacy. The young woman’s father watched from the gallery as Bell spoke on their behalf.
She said the victim and her family are struggling with stress and anxiety.
“Ultimately Mr. Gregg knew better than most that he should have terminated involvement with this young girl and should have walked away when he found out that she was 17,” Bell said. “And he didn’t.”
“This case is the result of my own selfish careless reckless impulses and actions,” Gregg said in a lengthy, tearful apology. “I shocked and scarred the family of the victim, whose lives have been forever changed by my actions.”
Gregg added that he brought shame to his family and law enforcement colleagues.
“I worked on cases to combat these crimes,” Gregg said. “In a brief moment of disillusionment, I let temptation win.”
In January, U.S. District Judge Laura Provinzino sentenced Anthony John Crowley, 53, a former Border Patrol agent, to nearly six years in prison after he admitted using a messaging app to upload child sex abuse images.
Former Minnesota State Trooper Jeremy Plonski, 30, is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 3 after he pleaded guilty to producing and sharing nearly two dozen videos of himself sexually abusing a baby. In some of the videos, Plonski is seen wearing his uniform and sidearm. He faces 15 to 30 years in prison.
