Man Who Threatened to Post Sexually Explicit Photograph of Former Girlfriend Taken When She Was a Minor Pleads Guilty
| U.S. Attorney’s Office September 09, 2010 |
A man who attempted to extort his former girlfriend by threatening to post a sexually explicit photograph of her taken when she was a minor plead guilty on September 8, 2010, in federal court in Cedar Rapids.
Garrett Drew Roegner, age 25, from Plymouth, Iowa, was convicted of one count of transporting child pornography and one count of extortion.
In a plea agreement, Roegner admitted that, beginning on May 30, 2010, he 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 had two pictures attached and said, “...u wouldn't want anyone to see these.” A later message said, “...if I don't hear back from u by next Wednesday I will post them.” One of the pictures was of the former girlfriend engaged in sexually explicit conduct with Roegner when the former girlfriend was 17 years old and Roegner was 19 years old.
A prior criminal 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.
Sentencing before United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade will be set after a presentence report is prepared. Roegner remains free on bond previously set pending sentencing. 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 life following any imprisonment.
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 CR10-2024 LRR.