West Branch Man Charged With Receipt Of Child Pornography

Brady Verlo, age 22, of West Branch, Iowa, has been charged with one count of receipt of child pornography.  The charge is contained in an Indictment filed on January 28, 2014, in United States District Court in Cedar Rapids. 

The Indictment alleges that, in August 2013, Verlo received child pornography.

If convicted, Verlo faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years’ imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, a $100 special assessment, and at least five years and up to life on supervised release following any imprisonment.

Verlo appeared today in federal court in Cedar Rapids and was held without bond.  Verlo’s next appearance for a detention hearing is set for February 5, 2014.

As with any criminal case, a charge is merely an accusation and a defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

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.