coggon man sentenced for possessing child pornography
Contact: Peter Deegan
A man who had child pornography on his computer was sentenced today to more than 8 years in federal prison.
Theodore Joseph Schaefer, age 37, from Coggon, Iowa, received the prison term after a December 6, 2010, guilty plea to possession of child pornography.
In a plea agreement, Schaefer admitted that, on June 17, 2010, and July 21, 2010, he possessed computer images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Some images involved prepubescent children engaged in sadistic sexual conduct including bondage.
Schaefer was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade. Schaefer was sentenced to 97 months’ imprisonment to be followed by 10 years of supervised release. A special assessment of $100 was also imposed, and he must register as a sex offender. There is no parole in the federal system.
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. <http://www.projectsafechildhood.gov>
Schaefer is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Peter Deegan and was investigated by the Cedar Rapids Police Department and the Iowa Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is 10-94 LRR.
