West Branch Man Admits to Possessing Child Pornography

A man who possessed child pornography pled guilty on January 17, 2012, in federal court in Cedar Rapids.

Timothy Wilker, age 48, from West Branch, Iowa, was convicted of one count of possessing child pornography.

At the plea hearing, Wilker admitted that, in May 2009, he knowingly possessed child pornography on a computer in his residence.

Sentencing before United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade will be set after a presentence report is prepared. Wilker was taken into custody by the United States Marshal after the guilty plea and will remain in custody pending sentencing. Wilker 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 Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Cedar County Sheriff’s Office, the West Branch Police Department, and the Iowa City Police Department.

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 11-109.