New charges filed against Hayfield man

A Hayfield man, convicted earlier this year on child pornography charges, was scheduled to be back in court Wednesday, Sept. 6, after 17 new felony charges were filed in Dodge County District Court.
Michael Nathan Williams, 20, was sentenced to 90 days in jail this spring for possessing pornographic images of children ranging in age from infants to young juveniles. He now has been charged with seven counts of disseminating pornographic work of a minor under 14 years old and 10 counts of possessing pornographic work of a minor under 14.
According to the complaint filed in District Court, a special agent with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension notified the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office on Nov. 9, 2022, that she had received a cybertip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding child pornography that was reported from Twitter.
An investigator from the Sheriff’s Office located the cybertip information from Twitter and found the suspect’s phone number which was ran though the Sheriff’s Office in-house computer system and it was found that the number was used on a previous disturbance call and the complainant was identified as Williams. The images had been uploaded to Twitter and the account was found to be owned by Williams.
In December 2022 a search warrant was obtained and a laptop, cellphones, and jump drives were collected and sent to the BCA for review.
In April Williams pleaded guilty to three counts of felony possession of pornographic work and was sentenced to 90 days in jail and five years probation as part of plea agreement.
On June 14, 2023, the Sheriff’s Office received the BCA report on Williams’ devises and were advised there were 2,224 images that were categorized as child pornography/child abuse material. That report resulted in the new charges.