Elementary School Principal Charged with Producing Child Pornography
| U.S. Attorney’s Office July 12, 2011 |
Robert Burke, age 43, from Dubuque, Iowa, has been charged with production, distribution, receipt, and possession of child pornography. The charges are contained in an indictment filed today in United States District Court in Cedar Rapids.
The indictment alleges that, between January and June 2011, Burke used minors to produce visual depictions of their genitals without the minors’ knowledge. It also alleges that Burke received depictions of child pornography using the Internet, that he distributed child pornography he had obtained from the Internet, and that he possessed four hard drives containing child pornography.
A complaint filed last month alleges Burke is the principal at Sageville Elementary School in Dubuque County. The Complaint further alleges that, during an interview on June 3, 2011, Burke stated he had placed a hidden video camera in a boys’ bathroom at this school, and the camera had produced video images of students who were using the bathroom. The complaint alleges Burke stated he had not touched any children in a sexual manner.
If convicted, Burke faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of 110 years’ imprisonment, a $1,750,000 in fines, $700 in special assessments, and supervised release following any imprisonment for at least five years and up to life.
Burke’s arraignment on the indictment in federal court in Cedar Rapids is set for July 13 at 12:00 p.m.
As with any criminal case, a charge is merely an accusation and a defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mark Tremmel and is being investigated by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Iowa Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Dubuque Police Department’s Digital Evidence Forensic Laboratory, and the Dubuque County Sheriff’s Office.
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 11-1004.