Pierce County Resident Sentenced to 12 Years for Distributing Child Pornography

MADISON, WIS. - Scott C. Blader, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Eric Kurrelmeyer, 32, Maiden Rock, Wisconsin, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge William M. Conley to 12 years in federal prison, to be followed by a lifetime of supervised release, for distributing child pornography.   Kurrelmeyer pleaded guilty to this charge on October 3, 2019.

On December 28, 2018, an individual using the mobile messaging application Kik sent several pictures of child pornography to an undercover task force officer (TFO) from the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force in Washington, D.C.  Officers identified Kurrelmeyer as the Kik user and executed a search warrant at his residence.  As a result of the search, officers found evidence that Kurrelmeyer distributed the sexually-explicit images to the undercover TFO.

At sentencing, Judge Conley expressed concern about the defendant’s risk to the community, noting that Kurrelmeyer was both “boastful and transparent” about his sexual interest in children while chatting with the undercover TFO.

The charge against Kurrelmeyer was the result of an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Child Exploitation Task Force, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office, and the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigations.  The prosecution of the case has been handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Chadwick M. Elgersma.

This investigation was a part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the U.S. Department of Justice.  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.justice.gov/psc.