Jeffery Lee Niemi

Summary

Jeffery Lee Niemi was a Mormon church member in Duluth, Minnesota.

In 2016 and again in 2025, Niemi was convicted of felonies related to child sexual exploitation. He was sentenced in 2025 to 30 years in prison.

In a May 2025 letter of support for a convicted child sexual abuser, two LDS church members call his crime an “unspeakable weakness” and tell the judge “he has never hurt a child in his life” despite a prior conviction in 2016.

We recently reported on Niemi’s conviction and sentencing. On June 10, Niemi was sentenced to 30 years in prison in Minnesota after pleading guilty to two first-degree felony counts of criminal sexual conduct.

Niemi, a Mormon, was convicted in 2016 of felonies related to child sexual exploitation.

We’ve received multiple reports from people who knew Niemi, who indicated that he was an active church member in the St. Paul stake in 2016 and later moved to the Duluth stake where he was living when convicted in 2025.

In May, two of Niemi’s LDS supporters wrote to the judge on his behalf, asking for leniency.

Here is that letter.

A person familiar with Niemi told Floodlit that Niemi did not face a church disciplinary council after his 2016 conviction.

At that time, Niemi was living in the St. Paul LDS stake.

According to the 2006 LDS general handbook, formally called the Church Handbook of Instructions (CHI):

“Disciplinary council must be held when evidence suggests that a member may have committed any of the following transgressions. […] Child Abuse – As used here, child abuse refers to a sexual offense against a child or physical abuse of a child.”

We are attempting to find a Church Handbook closer to 2016 to see if church policy changed.

If you have any information about Niemi, please contact us.