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Press Release

Dallas Man Sentenced for Using Social Media to Obtain Sexually Explicit Photos

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Texas

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – A 42-year-old man who resided in Dallas has been ordered to federal prison following his conviction of sexual exploitation of a child, otherwise known as production of child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson. Daniel Fredrick Heidemann admitted to posing as a young male in order to elicit sexually explicit photos from a juvenile female.

Today, U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos handed Heidemann a sentence of 200 months. Additional information was also presented today, including that there were victims in Ohio and Oregon. Heidemann will serve 20 years of supervised release following completion of his prison term, during which time he will have to comply with numerous requirements designed to restrict his access to children and the Internet. He will also be ordered to register as a sex offender.

At the time of the plea, the court heard that in August 2014, authorities learned that a juvenile female had been communicating via cellular telephone text messages and several social media websites with an individual she believed was a juvenile male from Dallas. Heidemann was identified as the perpetrator and admitted to posing as a juvenile male and enticing the victim into sending him sexually explicit photographs of herself.

Authorities executed a search warrant at Heidemann’s residence in Dallas and seized several electronic media storage devices. Forensic examination led to the discovery of several photographs of the juvenile female that were sexually explicit in nature.

Heidemann was arrested on the federal charges in March 2015 and has been in custody since that time where he will remain pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.

The charges are the result of an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations with the assistance of the Corpus Christi Police Department-Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

This case, prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Hugo R. Martinez, 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."

Updated November 23, 2015

Topic
Project Safe Childhood