Cedar County Man Charged with Child Pornography Offenses
| U.S. Attorney’s Office September 29, 2011 |
Timothy Wilker, age 48, from West Branch, Iowa, has been charged with one count of receipt of child pornography and three counts of possession of child pornography. The charges are contained in an indictment unsealed September 26, 2011, in United States District Court in Cedar Rapids.
The indictment alleges that, between January 2004 and May 2009, Wilker knowingly received child pornography and knowingly possessed two computers and printed images containing child pornography.
If convicted, Wilker faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years’ imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of 50 years’ imprisonment, $1,000,000 in fines, $400 in special assessments, and at least five years and up to life on supervised release following any imprisonment.
Wilker appeared on September 28, 2011 in federal court in Cedar Rapids and was released on bond. Wilker’s next appearance for trial is set for November 28, 2011.
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 the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Cedar County Sheriff’s Office, the West Branch Police Department, and the Iowa City 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 United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is CR 11-109.