Urbana Man Pleads Guilty to Sexual Exploitation of a Child

A man who sexually exploited a child pled guilty on August 4, 2023, in federal court in Cedar Rapids.

Michael Heinitz, age 20, of Urbana, was convicted of one count of sexual exploitation of a child.  At the plea hearing, Heinitz admitted that, between August and September 2022, he recorded sexually explicit videos of a four-year-old girl.

Sentencing before United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams will be set after a presentence report is prepared.  Heinitz remains in custody of the United States Marshal pending sentencing.  Heinitz faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of 30 years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, $55,100 in special assessments, and supervised release for 5 years to life following any imprisonment.

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.”

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mark Tremmel and was investigated by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.

Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.  The case file number is CR 23-33.

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