Sioux City, Iowa — A former Sioux Center Christian School teacher has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to sexual exploitation.
According to court records, Curtis Van Dam pled guilty in U.S. District Court in Sioux City in June to one federal count of Sexual Exploitation of a Child, in a plea agreement with prosecutors. In exchange for the guilty plea, federal prosecutors dismissed a second federal charge against Van Dam.
Evidence presented during the case showed a 2014 video in which Van Dam set up a video camera and pointed it toward a locker room shower, which later in the same recording, showed naked middle school boys.
Van Dam still faces more than 140 state charges in connection with various alleged child sex crimes that emerged from an investigation into a complaint lodged with Sioux Center Police in October 2017. Sioux Center Police say Van Dam’s alleged crimes date back to August 2013, and, according to court records, involved at least thirteen child victims.
Assistant US Attorney Timothy Duax says that the federal case involved different victims and circumstances than the state case. US District Judge Leonard Strand, who sentenced Van Dam suggested that any prison term Van Dam receives in the state case should be served back-to-back with the term in the federal case.
