Cedar Rapids Man Sentenced to 40 Years for Child Exploitation Crimes

A man who recorded himself sexually abusing a child was sentenced today to 40 years in federal prison.

Kevin Patrick Sullivan, age 43, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, received the prison term after an August 20, 2025, guilty plea to sexual exploitation of a child, receipt of child pornography, and possession of child pornography. 

Evidence at sentencing showed that between 2013 and 2015, Sullivan recorded himself sexually abusing a child and recorded the child when the child was nude.  Sullivan stored these recordings on hard drives, which law enforcement officers found when they searched his home in January 2025.  Sullivan physically and sexually abused the child in numerous other ways between 2005 and 2016.  Between 2013 and January 2025, Sullivan also received and possessed thousands of images and videos of child pornography, including depictions involving infants and sadistic and masochistic conduct.

Sullivan was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams.  He was sentenced to 480 months’ imprisonment and was ordered to make $15,000 in restitution.  He must also serve a 5-year term of supervised release after the prison term.  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 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.”

Sullivan 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 Devra T. Hake and investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.  

Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.

The case file number is 25-CR-30.

Follow us on X @USAO_NDIA.