mason city man charged with possessing child pornography
Contact: Peter Deegan
Brock Burman, age 38, from Mason City, Iowa, has been charged with six counts of possessing child pornography. The charges are contained in an Indictment filed on June 16, 2010, in United States District Court in Cedar Rapids.
The Indictment alleges that, between April 2007 and April 2010, Burman knowingly possessed depictions of child pornography after having been convicted of Indecent Contact with a Child in Butler County, Iowa, in 1997.
If convicted on all charges, Burman faces a possible maximum sentence of 120 years’ imprisonment, a $1,500,000 fine, $600 in special assessments, and up to life on supervised release following any imprisonment.
Burman appeared on June 22 in federal court in Cedar Rapids and was held without bond. Burman’s next appearance for trial is set for August 16, 2010.
As with any criminal case, a charge is merely an accusation and a defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mark Tremmel and was investigated by the Mason City Police Department, the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, the Mitchell County Sheriff’s Office, and the Iowa Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
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 United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is 10-3019.
