Cedar Rapids Man Pleads Guilty to Sexual Exploitation of Children

A man who sexually exploited children in the Philippines pled guilty today in federal court in Cedar Rapids.

William Meyer, age 64, from Cedar Rapids, was convicted of one count of sexual exploitation of children.  At the plea hearing, Meyer admitted that, between 2012 and 2019, he persuaded, induced, or enticed one or more minors to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing visual depictions or for the purpose of transmitting live visual depictions of this conduct.  The live visual depictions included Skype video transmissions from minors in the Philippines.

Sentencing before United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams will be set after a presentence report is prepared.  Meyer remains in custody of the United States Marshal pending sentencing.  Meyer faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of 30 years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, $5,100 in special assessments, and supervised release for 5 years to life following any imprisonment. 

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mark Tremmel and was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and 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 19-105.

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