grundy center man charged with child sexual exploitation and child pornography offenses
Contact: Peter Deegan
Ricky Patten, age 41, from Grundy Center, Iowa, has been charged with one count of sexual exploitation of children and five counts of possessing child pornography. The charges are contained in an Indictment filed on October 18, 2010, in United States District Court in Cedar Rapids.
The Indictment alleges that, between 2008 and July 2010, Patten used a minor under the age of 18 to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing visual depictions of such conduct. The Indictment also alleges that Patten possessed five SD cards containing child pornography.
If convicted on all charges, Patten faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of 80 years’ imprisonment, $1,500,000 in fines, $600 in special assessments, and up to life on supervised release following any imprisonment.
Patten is being held in federal custody without bond. Patten’s next appearance for an arraignment is set for October 25, 2010, in federal court in Cedar Rapids.
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 Grundy County Sheriff’s Office, the Grundy Center Police Department, 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-CR-110.
