Waterloo, IA — A sinister chapter has closed in the battle against child exploitation as Forrest Rindels, a 69-year-old resident of Waterloo, Iowa, was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for his heinous crime of possessing child pornography.
Rindels’ sentence, handed down on August 4, 2025, came after his guilty plea on March 6, 2025, to two counts of possession of child pornography. The predator had admitted to harboring explicit material on a tablet and a micro-SD card between 2021 and 2022.
This is not Rindels’ first offense; in 2016, he was convicted in the Northern District of Iowa for receipt of child pornography. His latest transgression, which earned him an additional sentence, reflects the severity of his deviance and the justice system’s zero-tolerance stance on such acts.
The hearing took place in Cedar Rapids, where United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams imposed a stern 144-months’ imprisonment on Rindels. The court also ordered him to pay $42,000 in restitution to 14 victims featured in the child pornography he possessed. His supervised release term following prison concludes with a five-year obligation.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mark Tremmel and investigated by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the Waterloo Police Department. It is part of Project Safe Childhood, an initiative launched by the Department of Justice to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse.
Forrest Rindels’ sentence sends a powerful message that such crimes will not be tolerated in Iowa or any corner of the United States. The grimy details of this case can be found at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl, case file number CR 24-2055.
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Key Facts
- State: Iowa
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Sex Crimes|Cybercrime
- Source: Official Source ↗
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