Sioux City Man Sentenced to Federal Prison for Possessing Child Pornography

Daniel Kaler, 38, from Sioux City, Iowa, was sentenced today to 64 months’ imprisonment after pleading guilty on September 8, 2025, to possessing child pornography.  

Evidence at the plea and sentencing hearings showed that from November 2023 to October 2024, Kaler received and possessed over 7,000 images and videos of child pornography.  The images and videos involved material that portrayed sadistic or masochistic conduct, as well as prepubescent children, infants, and toddlers.  A CyberTip from Verizon’s cloud storage company to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children connected downloads of child pornography to Kaler’s account.  Law enforcement officers searched Kaler’s electronic devices pursuant to a search warrant.  Analysis of Kaler’s devices showed he utilized third-party web browsers called “Brave” and “Yandex” to search for and download child pornography.  

Sentencing was held before United States District Court Judge Leonard T. Strand.  Kaler was sentenced to 64 months’ imprisonment, and he must serve a term of five-years of supervised release following imprisonment.  He was ordered to pay $6,600 in fines and restitution.  Kaler remains in custody of the United States Marshal until he can be transported to a federal prison.  There is no parole in the federal system. 

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.”

The case was investigated by the Sioux City Police Department and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kraig R. Hamit.  

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

The case file number is 25-4016.  Follow us on X @USAO_NDIA.