There are stories where the job title hits you first, and this is one of them. A corrections officer is now facing charges tied to CSAM. That’s not irony but a warning sign about the kinds of places predators will try to put themselves.
43-year-old Jon Max Rasmussen Jr., a former correctional sergeant with the Mille Lacs County (Minn.) Sheriff’s Office has been charged in neighboring Benton County with five counts of possession of CSAM.
According to investigators, the case goes back to July of 2024, when a tip came in from Kik. For anyone unfamiliar, Kik is a mobile messaging app that allows users to chat with others, often with a degree of anonymity, which has made it attractive not just for casual conversations, but unfortunately also for sex offenders, pedophiles, CSAM collectors, and child traffickers.
Authorities say a user on the app was uploading CSAM, and the investigation that followed traced the activity back to Rasmussen. That digital trail led to his arrest on April 8th, when he was taken into custody and booked into the Benton County Jail.
Investigators say Rasmussen told them he had downloaded Kik more than a year ago because he wanted to “cheat his wife.” That explanation might sound like an attempt to downplay things, but it falls apart quickly. Cheating doesn’t explain seeking out CSAM, and it definitely doesn’t explain allegedly befriending others on the app to trade it.
The Mille Lacs County Sheriff’s Office didn’t waste time once the arrest happened. Rasmussen was fired the day of his arrest.
The part that should stick with people is where he worked. While a corrections officer may not be a sworn deputy, it’s still a position of authority inside a jail. It comes with oversight responsibilities and control over others in custody. Predators like this will almost always try to seek out positions of power, no matter how limited that power might be. Sometimes it’s a job around vulnerable populations. Sometimes it’s something like this, where authority and access still exist, even if it’s behind bars instead of out on the street.
Stories like this don’t just raise questions about one person’s actions. They force a harder look at how someone in that position got there in the first place and whether there were warning signs that were never taken seriously. Meanwhile, the reason these charges exist at all tends to get pushed to the background. Every piece of material involved represents real victims, and the networks like Kik where it’s traded don’t run on their own.
This wasn’t someone who just supposedly crossed a line once. This was someone who allegedly stepped into a system built on exploitation and participated in it, all while holding a job that was supposed to be about maintaining order and safety. That disconnect is exactly why cases like this hit as hard as they do.
And, as usual, I didn’t see anything that indicated the suspect was any kind of drag queen.
(Source)
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