Iowa City man sentenced to federal prison for possessing, distributing child pornography
Sameer Chandulal Patel, 30, pled guilty on June 17 will serve 17 and a half years in federal prison.
A University of Iowa police truck is seen in Iowa City on Monday, April 11, 2022.
November 1, 2022
An Iowa City man was federally charged with possessing and distributing child pornography.
Sameer Chandulal Patel, 30, of Iowa City, pled guilty on June 17 and was charged with receipt and distribution of child pornography on Oct. 28.
Patel will serve 17 and a half years, followed by five years of supervised release, unless he is deported. Patel is originally from India.
According to a Nov. 1 press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Iowa, a social media application received a cyber tip that indicated child pornography was uploaded to the site.
The investigation from the FBI and the University of Iowa Department of Public Safety revealed Patel had distributed and possessed over 18,000 images and 14,000 videos that contained child pornography between 2016 and 2021.
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The case was prosecuted by the U.S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa. It was part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s “Protect Safe Childhood” initiative.
Anyone with knowledge of a child being sexually abused is encouraged to call the Iowa Sexual Abuse Hotline at 1-800-284-7821.