Cedar Rapids Man Pleads Guilty To Federal Child Sexual Exploitation Offenses

A man who sexually exploited and extorted minors pled guilty today in federal court in Cedar Rapids.

Lucas Robinson, age 23, from Cedar Rapids, was convicted of one count of sexual exploitation of children, one count of possession of child pornography, and one count of extortion.

At the plea hearing, Robinson admitted that, between 2009 and 2012, he used, persuaded, induced, enticed, and coerced minor females to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing visual depictions of this conduct. He admitted he threatened to distribute sexually explicit depictions of minors so they would send him more sexually explicit depictions of themselves, so they would talk to him when he wanted, and so at least one minor would engage in sexual activity with him.

Sentencing before United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade will be set after a presentence report is prepared. Robinson remains in custody of the United States Marshal pending sentencing. Robinson faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of 42 years’ imprisonment, $750,000 in fines, a $300 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 the Cedar Rapids Police Department and the Benton County Sheriff’s Office.

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 12-0089.