Northern District of Iowa | Man Who Possessed Child Pornography Sentenced to Over Five Years in Prison
A man who possessed over 3,500 photographs and 25 videos of child pornography was sentenced today to more than 5 years in federal prison.
Stephen Gruber, age 60, from Sumner, Iowa, received the prison term after an October 13, 2022 guilty plea to possession of child pornography.
At the guilty plea, Gruber admitted he possessed child pornography on his computer between November 2016 and March 2017.
Gruber was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams. Gruber was sentenced to 63 months’ imprisonment. He was also ordered to make restitution. He must also serve a 5-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.
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 the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”
Gruber is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Liz Dupuich and investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the Sumner Police Department..
Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.
The case file number is 22-cr-2054.
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