Independence Man Sentenced to More Than 12 Years in Federal Prison for Distribution of Child Pornography

A man who distributed child pornography was sentenced on February 3, 3026, to more than 12 years in federal prison.

Curtis Lellig, age 42, of Independence, Iowa, received the sentence after an August 25, 2025, guilty plea to one count of distribution of child pornography.  At the plea hearing, Lellig admitted that, between December 2022 and January 2024, he knowingly distributed child pornography.

Lellig was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams.  Lellig was sentenced to 151 months’ imprisonment.  He was ordered to make $66,000 in restitution to 20 victims depicted in the child pornography he possessed.  He must also serve a five-year term of supervised release after the prison term.  There is no parole in the federal system.   

This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mark Tremmel and was investigated by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Independence Police Department, and the Iowa State Patrol.

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 25-2020.

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