Huxley Man Sentenced to Prison for Sending Obscene Material to a Minor

DES MOINES, IA -- On January 19, 2018, Luke Crouse, age 26, formerly of Huxley, was sentenced by United States District Court Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger to five years in prison and three years of supervised release to follow his prison term for transferring obscene material to a minor announced United States Attorney Marc Krickbaum.

Crouse was arrested by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in March of 2017, after he engaged in numerous lewd chats on a social media site with a purported 14-year old girl in another state, and sent her three photographs of his genitalia. Crouse was a teacher in the Maxwell-Collins School District at the time. The investigation did not reveal any improper behavior by Crouse toward students. Crouse has remained in custody since the time of his arrest, and was fired from his teaching position.

This case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security-Homeland Security Investigations and prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa as part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s “Project Safe Childhood” initiative.

Any persons having knowledge of a child being sexually abused are encouraged to call the Iowa Sexual Abuse Hotline at 1-800-284-7821.