Mason City Man Sentenced to 40 Years for Child Sexual Exploitation Offenses

A man who sexually exploited a child and possessed child pornography was sentenced June 10, 2015 to 40 years in federal prison.

Micheal Jones, age 41, of Mason City, Iowa, received the sentence after a January 8, 2015 guilty plea to one count of sexual exploitation of a child and one count of possession of child pornography.  At the guilty plea hearing, Jones admitted that, in April 2013, he sexually exploited a child by producing a sexually explicit video and photographs of that child.  He also admitted that, between April 2013 and September 2014, he possessed child pornography.

Jones was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade.  Jones was sentenced to 480 months’ imprisonment.  A special assessment of $200 was imposed, and he must also serve a 10-year term of supervised release.  He must comply with all sex offender registration and public notification requirements.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mark Tremmel and was investigated by the Mason City Police Department.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc.  For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”

Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.  The case file number is CR 14-3060.

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