Plymouth, Iowa, Man Charged with Extortion for Allegedly Threatening to Post Child Pornography on the Internet

Garrett Drew Roegner, age 25, from Plymouth, Iowa, has been charged with one count of transporting child pornography and one count of extortion. The charges are contained in a Complaint filed today in United States District Court in Cedar Rapids.

The Complaint alleges that, beginning May 30, 2010, Roegner sent a series of messages on Myspace.com to a former girlfriend threatening to post sexually explicit pictures of her on the Internet unless she agreed to meet with him. One of the messages allegedly had two pictures attached and said, “... u wouldn't want anyone to see these.” A later message allegedly said, “. . . if I don’t hear back from u by next Wednesday I will post them.” One of the pictures was allegedly of the former girlfriend engaged in sexually explicit conduct with Roegner when she was a minor.

The Complaint also alleged that, during a June 17, 2010, search of Roegner’s house, Roegner directed officers to printed copies of the same pictures. Allegedly, the copies had been printed from a website where Roegner had posted the pictures in about 2005.

If convicted on all charges, Roegner faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years’ imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of 22 years’ imprisonment, a $500,000 fine, $200 in special assessments, and supervised release for at least five years and up to life following any imprisonment.

Roegner appeared today in federal court in Cedar Rapids and was held pending a detention hearing on June 22, 2010, at 2:00 p.m.

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

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Peter Deegan and was investigated by the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is 10-MJ-145.