Ex-Reno school counselor gets up to life for child porn

RENO, Nev. (AP) — A former Reno school counselor has been sentenced to up to life in prison on a child pornography charge after prosecutors say he paid nearly $20,000 to teenagers he persuaded via social media to send him photos.

Tyler Ball-Imsdahl, 28, pleaded guilty earlier to one count of production of child pornography. He was sentenced Monday and will be eligible for parole in five years, the Washoe County District Attorney’s office said Thursday.

Ball-Imsdahl pretended on social media to be a female teenager in order to obtain photos from multiple teenage boys, prosecutors said.

After developing on-line relationships with them, he admitted he paid a total of nearly $20,000 to some minors to provide additional photos, they said.

Ball-Imsdahl served as a counselor at Desert Skies Middle School in Sun Valley before he was placed on administrative leave following his arrest in July 2021, authorities said.

The investigation began when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a tip from Yahoo! Inc. that email addresses associated with Ball-Imsdahl had been sharing child pornography, the district attorney’s office said.

If he’s released from prison, he’ll be required to register as a sex offender and will be on lifetime supervision.