Mason City Man Pleads Guilty To Child Sexual Exploitation Offenses

A man who sexually exploited a child and possessed child pornography pled guilty today in federal court in Cedar Rapids.

Micheal Jones, age 40, from Mason City, Iowa, was convicted of one count of sexual exploitation of a child and one count of possession of child pornography.

At the plea hearing, Jones admitted that, in April 2013, he sexually exploited a child by producing sexually explicit depictions of that child.  He also admitted that, between April 2013 and September 2014, he possessed child pornography.

Sentencing before United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade will be set after a presentence report is prepared.  Jones remains in custody of the United States Marshal pending sentencing.  Jones faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of 40 years’ imprisonment, a $500,000 fine, a $200 special assessment, and supervised release for 5 years to life following his imprisonment.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mark Tremmel and was investigated by 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 14-3060.