Iowa man sentenced to 9 years for receiving child pornography

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — A northeastern Iowa man was sentenced Monday to nine years in federal prison for receiving child pornography over the internet.

This sentence resulted from an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Iowa police departments of the cities of Evansdale and Waterloo, and the Black Hawk County (Iowa) Sheriff’s Office.

Derek Clemens, 31, of Evansdale, Iowa, was sentenced before United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams to 108 months’ imprisonment. His sentence follows an Aug. 5, 2019, guilty plea in which Clemens pleaded guilty to one count of receipt of child pornography.

At his plea hearing, Clemens admitted that, between March 2018 and October 2018, he knowingly received child pornography. In his plea agreement, Clemens also admitted that he possessed child pornography on a cell phone and a memory card, which included depictions of prepubescent children.

In addition to his prison sentence, the court imposed a special assessment of $100 and ordered Clemens to make $3,000 in restitution to a victim depicted in the videos he possessed. Clemens must also serve a 10-year term of supervised release and comply with all sex offender registration and public notification requirements.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mark Tremmel.

This investigation was conducted under HSI’s Operation Predator, an international initiative to protect children from sexual predators. Since the launch of Operation Predator in 2003, HSI has arrested more than 25,000 individuals for crimes against children, including the production and distribution of online child exploitation material, traveling overseas for sex with minors, and sex trafficking of children. In fiscal year 2019, more than 3,500 child predators were arrested by HSI special agents under this initiative and more than 1,000 victims identified or rescued.

HSI encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free Tip Line at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE or by completing its online tip form. Both are staffed around the clock by investigators. From outside the U.S. and Canada, callers should dial 802-872-6199. Hearing impaired users can call TTY 802-872-6196.

Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, via its toll-free 24-hour hotline, 1-800-THE-LOST.

HSI is a founding member of the Virtual Global Taskforce, an international alliance of law enforcement agencies and private industry sector partners working together to prevent and deter online child sexual abuse.