Fargo sex offender gets 27 years on child porn charges

A Fargo man, convicted three times as a sex offender, has been sentenced to 27 years in federal prison for possession and distribution of child pornography.

Forty-two-year-old Jeffrey Lee Buckmeier was sentenced in Fargo this week by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Peter Welte.

Buckmeier was also sentenced to a lifetime period of supervised release and ordered to pay $84,000 in restitution to the victims depicted in his child porn collection.

Authorities say Buckmeier uploaded 27 child porn files to a messaging app in 2021. To avoid detection, Buckmeier used the IP addresses of several local businesses to download the porn on his cell phone.

A subsequent search of Buckmeier’s home revealed more than 11,000 images and 900 videos of child porn depicting children as young as three months.