(KIWA Staff Photo)Sioux City, Iowa (KUOO) — A Lake Park man has pleaded guilty to federal child pornography charges.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa says 44-year-old Chris Kurt entered the guilty plea earlier this week.
During a plea hearing, Kurt admitted to receiving and possessing more than 103 videos and 132 images of child pornography that had been backed up to cloud storage.
According to federal prosecutors, law enforcement officiers executed a search warrant at Kurt’s Lake Park residence and seized multiple electronic devices. A forensic examination of those devices allegedly uncovered more than 10,000 images and more than 1,000 videos depicting child sexual abuse, including material involving prepubescent minors.
Prosecutors say Kurt told investigators he did not know how much material would be found on the devices because he had downloaded so much over the years.
Kurt will be sentenced after a presentence investigation report is completed. He remains in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.
He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine, and at least five years of supervised release.
The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide Department of Justice initiative launched in 2006 to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse.
The investigation involved the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Lake Park Police Department, and the Dickinson County Sheriff’s Office.
