Spencer Man Charged with Receiving and Possessing Child Pornography

Justin Funck, age 26, from Spencer, Iowa, has been charged with one count of receiving child pornography and four counts of possessing child pornography. The charges are contained in an Indictment unsealed November 23, 2010, in United States District Court in Sioux City.

The Indictment alleges that, between October 2008 and May 2009, Funck knowingly received and possessed depictions of child pornography.

If convicted on all charges, Funck faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years’ imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of 60 years’ imprisonment, $1,250,000 in fines, $500 in special assessments, and at least five years and up to life on supervised release following any imprisonment.

Funck appeared on November 23, 2010, in federal court in Sioux City and was held without bond. Funck's next appearance for trial is set for January 3, 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 and 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 10-4102.