MOORHEAD, Minn. — A Moorhead man will avoid time behind bars after admitting to disseminating and possessing child sex abuse images.
Clay County Judge Tammy Merkins on Tuesday, Sept. 14, sentenced 21-year-old Garrett Joseph Grommesh to 90 days of electronic home monitoring and seven years of supervised probation for four felony charges: one count of disseminating child pornography and three for possession. The remaining seven charges were dismissed.
The Moorhead Police Department received a call in August 2019 that images depicting child sex abuse were found on Grommesh's cellphone, according to court documents. Police also discovered Grommesh had shared some of the images online, a criminal complaint said.
Grommesh had faced up to seven years in prison for the most serious charge: dissemination. A plea agreement, which Merkins followed, called for no time in prison.
In exchange, Grommesh pleaded guilty in the case in July. He also must register as a sex offender.
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Grommesh, who was then 10 years old, and his family were featured on "Extreme Makeover" in 2010, when more than 4,000 volunteers helped the reality TV show build the family a 5,200-square-foot accessible home. Grommesh uses a wheelchair because he was born with spina bifida, a condition that prevents proper spinal cord development.
Grommesh still lives in the home, according to court documents.
