Former UI employee sentenced to prison for child pornography possession

Iowa City resident Tyler Dean Kadolph was sentenced to 97 months in prison on Oct. 26.

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Dimia Burrell

A University of Iowa police truck is seen in Iowa City on Monday, April 11, 2022.

Emily Nyberg, News Reporter


This is a developing story, check back with The Daily Iowan for updates.

A former University of Iowa Field House employee has been sentenced to 97 months in federal prison for the possession of child pornography.

In an Oct. 27 press release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa announced Tyler Dean Kadolph, 25, of Iowa City, was sentenced on Oct. 26 following his plea to the charge.

Kadolph was first arrested in April 2021 after an investigation of someone recording women in a Field House locker room, according to the release, which led to Kadolph who was employed there at that time. 

Officers acquired a search warrant for Kadolph’s phone relating to the investigation in which they found child pornography. Kadolph had also created a fake Instagram account in which he pretended to be a female minor and he requested to exchange nude photographs.

The investigation was done through the UI Police Department, Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, and the Iowa City Police Department. Kadolph took a plea deal, which was announced by the U.S. Attorney Richard Westphal of Iowa’s Southern District. 

Hayley Bruce, assistant director of communications and external relations for the UI Department of Public Safety, wrote in an email to The Daily Iowan that this was an isolated incident only involving Kadolph.

“UI Police responded immediately when this incident was reported in fall of 2019. Mr. Kadolph was taken into custody following an investigation and was charged with possessing and receiving child pornography,” she wrote.

The case was prosecuted by the U.S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District as part of the “Protect Safe Childhood” initiative by the U.S. Department of Justice. The initiative was started in 2006 as an effort to reduce incidences of sexual exploitation of children nationwide. 

People with knowledge of a child being sexually abused are encouraged to contact the Iowa Sexual Abuse Hotline at 1-800-284-7821.