Clarion Man Pleads Guilty to Receipt of Child Pornography

A man who received child pornography pled guilty today in federal court in Cedar Rapids.

Jonathan Sebert, age 24, from Clarion, Iowa, was convicted of one count of receipt of child pornography. At the plea hearing, Sebert admitted that, between 2012 and 2015, he knowingly received child pornography.

Sentencing before Chief United States District Court Judge Linda R. Reade will be set after a presentence report is prepared. Sebert remains in custody of the United States Marshal pending sentencing. Sebert faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years’ imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, a $100 special assessment, and supervised release for 5 years to life following any imprisonment.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mark Tremmel and was investigated by the Wright County Sheriff’s Office and the Mason City 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 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.”

Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is CR 16-3054.

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