Reinbeck Man Sentenced to 30 Years for Child Pornography Offenses

A man who received and possessed child pornography was sentenced today to 30 years in federal prison.

Michael Cottrell, age 43, from Reinbeck, Iowa, received the sentence after an October 13, 2015 guilty plea to 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.  At the sentencing hearing, the parties and the court discussed Cottrell’s history of sexual contact with minors when he was a juvenile.

Cottrell was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade.  Cottrell was sentenced to 360 months’ imprisonment.  A special assessment of $200 was imposed, Cottrell was ordered to pay $500 in restitution, and he must serve a 20-year term of supervised release.  He must comply with all sex offender registration and public notification requirements.

This case was 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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