A man who received child pornography was sentenced June 8, 2012, to 5 years in federal prison.

Charles Melchert, age 59, of Humboldt, Iowa, received the sentence after a December 28, 2011, guilty plea to one count of receiving child pornography.

At the guilty plea, Melchert admitted that, between October 2008 and July 2010, he downloaded child pornography using the Internet.

Melchert was sentenced in Sioux City by United States District Court Judge Mark W. Bennett. Melchert was sentenced to 60 months’ imprisonment. A special assessment of $100 was imposed, and Melchert must also serve a 5-year term of supervised release after the prison term. He must comply with all sex offender registration and public notification requirements. There is no parole in the federal system.

Melchert is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mark Tremmel and was investigated by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the Humboldt 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 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 CR 10-3040.

 

 

Return to Top