Baumhover Sentenced

A Dubuque man has been sentenced to over 12 years in federal prison for possessing child pornography. Robert Baumhover, age 48, of Dubuque, Iowa, received the sentence after a March 31, 2014, guilty plea to one count of possession of child pornography.

At the guilty plea hearing, Baumhover admitted that he knowingly possessed child pornography. In a plea agreement, Baumhover admitted he received child pornography between 2001 and 2013; he also admitted he possessed over 15,000 images of child pornography.

Baumhover was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade. Baumhover was sentenced to 148 months’ imprisonment. A special assessment of $100 was imposed, and Baumhover must also serve a ten-year term of supervised release. He must comply with all sex offender registration and public notification requirements.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mark Tremmel and was investigated by the Dubuque County Sheriff’s Office, the Scott County Sheriff’s Office, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Iowa Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

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.” Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is CR 14-1004.

The sentence handed down to Baumhover reflects the seriousness of the crime of child pornography possession. The fact that Baumhover possessed over 15,000 images of child pornography is a disturbing indication of the scope of the problem of child exploitation. The investigation and prosecution of this case demonstrate the commitment of law enforcement agencies to protecting children from sexual exploitation and abuse.