Former Waterloo Man Admits to Possessing Child Pornography

A man who possessed child pornography pled guilty on July 7, 2011, in federal court in Cedar Rapids.

Martin Weeks, age 42, formerly of Waterloo, Iowa, and now of New York, was convicted of one count of possessing child pornography.

At the plea hearing, Weeks admitted that, between November 2007 and February 2008, he knowingly possessed child pornography.

Sentencing before United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade will be set after a presentence report is prepared. Weeks was taken into custody by the United States Marshal after the guilty plea and will remain in custody pending sentencing. Weeks faces a possible maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, a $100 special assessment, and supervised release for five years to life following his imprisonment.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mark Tremmel and was investigated by the Federal Bureau of 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 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 10-2053.