Reinbeck Man Pleads Guilty to Child Pornography Offenses

A man who received and possessed child pornography pled guilty on October 13, 2015, in federal court in Cedar Rapids.

Michael Cottrell, age 43, from Reinbeck, Iowa, was convicted of one count of receipt of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.  At the plea hearing, Cottrell admitted that, between 2012 and 2014, he knowingly received child pornography and possessed it on his computer.

Sentencing before United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade will be set after a presentence report is prepared.  Cottrell remains in custody of the United States Marshal pending sentencing.  Cottrell faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 5 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 Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Grundy County Sheriff’s Office, and the Cedar Rapids 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 15-82.

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