Ida Grove Man Pleads Guilty to Possession of Child Pornography

Scott Allen Tomlinson, 49, from Ida Grove, Iowa, pled guilty in federal court in Sioux City, on October 2, 2023, to Possession of Child Pornography.

At the plea hearing, Tomlinson admitted that he knowingly possessed and attempted to possess child pornography, including depictions involving prepubescent minors or minors who had not attained 12 years of age.  Law enforcement recovered dozens of images from Tomlinson’s cloud-based storage systems.  Tomlinson admitted he used a cellular phone to access the images on the cloud.  He further admitted that some of the images included material that portrayed sadistic and masochistic conduct.

Sentencing before United States District Court Chief Judge Leonard T. Strand will be set after a presentence report is prepared.  Tomlinson was taken into custody by the United States Marshal after the guilty plea and will remain in custody pending sentencing.  Tomlinson faces up to 20 years’ imprisonment without the possibility of parole, a fine of up to $250,000, and 5 years to life of supervised release following any imprisonment.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kraig R. Hamit and was investigated by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the Ida County Sheriff’s Office. 

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

The case file number is 22-CR-04094.

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