Sioux City Man Pleads Guilty To Distributing And Receiving Child Pornography

A man who distributed and received child pornography pled guilty on February 25, 2013, in federal court in Sioux City.

Jeffrey Huygens, age 47, from Sioux City, Iowa, was convicted of one count of distribution of child pornography and one count of receipt of child pornography.

At the plea hearing, Huygens admitted that, between September 2011 and December 2011, he used the Internet to distribute child pornography. He also admitted that, between 2002 and March 2012, he used the Internet to receive child pornography. In addition, he admitted that, in 1990, in Island County, Washington, he was convicted of Child Molestation in the First Degree.

Sentencing before United States District Court Judge Donald E. O’Brien will be set after a presentence report is prepared. Huygens remains in custody of the United States Marshal pending sentencing. Huygens faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of 80 years’ imprisonment, $500,000 in fines, a $200 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 Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.

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 12-4094.