U.S. Department of Justice
United States Attorney
Southern District of Iowa

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 6, 2010

DES MOINES MAN SENTENCED ON CHILD PORNOGRAPHY CHARGE
    DES MOINES - On April 2, 2010, Chad William Cunningham, age 33, of Des Moines, Iowa, was sentenced to a term of 210 months imprisonment for producing child pornography, announced United States Attorney Nicholas A. Klinefeldt. Chief United States District Court Judge Robert W. Pratt also ordered Cunningham to serve a ten year term of supervised release upon his release from prison and pay a crime victim fund assessment of $100.00.
    On September 28, 2009, Cunningham pled guilty to the production of child pornography charge. A search warrant was executed on Cunningham's residence on November 14, 2008, based on evidence that Cunningham was distributing child pornography to other individuals from his home computer. A forensic exam of a digital camera seized from Cunningham's residence revealed evidence that Cunningham had used an eight year old child to produce child pornography.
    This case was as 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 Department of Justice. 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.
    This case was investigated by the Department of Homeland Security,
Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Iowa Division of Criminal
Investigation and the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, and prosecuted
by the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Iowa.