Warrants sought T. Denny Sanford's email, data records in S.D. child pornography investigation

Minnehaha County Judge James Power on Wednesday ordered the release of public information in search warrants conducted in a child pornography investigation into Sioux Falls Banker T. Denny Sanford.

Power's order followed a South Dakota Supreme Court ruling last month that some items in the search warrants are public information. The case was brought by the Argus Leader and ProPublica, a national media organization. As parties to a case that was under seal, the Argus Leader and ProPublica could only refer to Sanford as an "Implicated Individual" until Wednesday.

A total of five warrants were issued during the investigation, the first of which was issued on Dec. 9, 2019 seeking information related to an email account of Sanford's. Four others were issued March 13, 2020. They were served on Internet and cellular data providers.

More: T. Denny Sanford named as 'implicated individual' in S.D. child pornography investigation

The documents unsealed Wednesday included the contents of the warrants, the return of the warrant and the inventory. Not included in the release were affidavits submitted by law enforcement detailing the need for the warrants. Those remain sealed under state law.

Sanford was not charged with a crime.

What the records show

The caption titles on the warrants identified Sanford as the target of the investigation. During a closed court hearing last year, Marty Jackley, the lawyer who represented Sanford, identified the Implicated Individual as Sanford. The Argus Leader was prevented from reporting on the hearing because it was conducted under seal.

Both Jackley and the South Dakota Attorney General's Office argued the caption titles should not be released. The attorney general argued the captions were errors wrongly identified Sanford as the target.

Previously: State high court rules that search warrant records for 'Implicated Individual' must be public

The captions are titled "State of South Dakota Vs. Thomas Denny Sanford." Sanford is listed as a defendant on the warrants. Two of the five say the investigation pertains to a matter of possession and distribution of child pornography in Minnehaha County.

Who was served a warrant?

The first warrant in December, 2019 sought records relating to both a Hotmail email address as well as an AOL email.

The records included the identity of the person behind the addresses, mobile phone numbers, read and unread emails, connection times, data transfer times and IP addresses The warrant was served on Oath Inc., the owner of AOL, and the request was for records dating back to January 1, 2019.

“Oath Inc. is prohibited from notifying the user of the AOL email address listed above of the existence of the search warrant or that the search warrant had been served to Oath Inc.,” the warrant read.

The warrant was sought by Jeff Kollars, an agent with the Division of Criminal Investigation. Kollars requested that his affidavit be sealed. Kollars noted that the investigation "involves multiple online accounts."

The subsequent search warrants were served on MidCo, related to an IP address used on June 27, 2019. Three warrants were served on Verizon Wireless. One for data related to a redacted cell phone used on June 27, 2019, one for a phone on May 29, 2019, and one for records for a phone used on May 28, 2019.

This is a developing story. Stay with ArgusLeader.com for more.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: T. Denny Sanford's email records sought in child porn investigation