A man who distributed child pornography pled guilty today in federal court in Cedar Rapids.
Brady Verlo, age 22, from West Branch, Iowa, was convicted of one count of distribution of child pornography.
At the plea hearing, Verlo admitted that, between June 2013 and December 2013, he distributed child pornography. In a plea agreement, Verlo admitted that he distributed depictions of child pornography that previously had been transported to him through the Internet and cell phone messaging services. In the plea agreement, Verlo also admitted that he possessed over 20,000 images and 900 videos of child pornography.
Sentencing before United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade will be set after a presentence report is prepared. Verlo was taken into custody by the United States Marshal after the guilty plea and will remain in custody pending sentencing. Verlo faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years’ imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, a $100 special assessment, and supervised release for 5 years to life following his imprisonment.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mark Tremmel and was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the Iowa City Police Department, and the West Branch 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 14-9.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
