Former St. Cloud morning host pleads guilty in nude photo case
A St. Cloud-based podcaster and YouTube personality has entered a guilty plea stemming from an incident in which he was accused of showing a nude photo of someone without their consent during a livestream.
Aaron Imholte, 38, pleaded guilty in Stearns County District Court on Thursday to nonconsensual dissemination of private sexual images, a misdemeanor. He was initially charged with a felony of the same crime but that has been dismissed as part of the plea deal.
Imholte hosts the "Steel Toe Morning Show," which has about 13,000 subscribers on YouTube and approximately 4,000 on Rumble.
According to the criminal complaint, while Imholte was hosting his show on May 27, 2024, he allegedly sent a nude image of the victim to a guest on the show. Imholte and the guest then discussed the photo of the victim on-air, which allegedly showed the person topless.
The photo was sent over the messaging app Signal, according to the complaint.
Imholte addressed the case on his show last Friday.
"In May, I sent that picture [to the guest]. I sent it to [the guest] because I was a f****** dumb guy in a [bad] place," Imholte said. "When I said, 'boy didn't do too bad, did he?'… That was a guy who was looking for a little validation from a friend. I cannot urge you against something like that more."
The 38-year-old isn't expected to face any prison time. As of Monday, a sentencing date has not yet been set and Imholte is not in custody.
Before turning to a career as an independent podcast and streaming host, Imholte was the morning show host at "Rockin' 101" at WHMH-FM in St. Cloud. He resigned from that role in December 2020 after he demeaned a female radio host in Iowa while live on-air.
Imholte referred to Heather Lee of KAZR in Des Moines as "fat," "a pig," and "diabetic, while joking that "pitbulls should eat her." He also encouraged listeners to comment on KAZR's Facebook page that Lee uses racist language in her private time and said a woman on a morning radio show is a "problem for the industry."
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