MASON CITY MAN SENTENCED TO 35 YEARS ON CHILD PORNOGRAPHY CHARGES.

Cedar Rapids, Iowa -- The following information was released by the United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Iowa:

A man who downloaded and possessed child pornography was sentenced March 3, 2011, to 35 years in federal prison.

Brock Burman, age 39, of Mason City, Iowa, received the sentence after a September 17, 2010, guilty plea to three counts of receiving child pornography and nine counts of possessing child pornography.

At the guilty plea, Burman admitted that, between April 2007 and April 2010, he downloaded child pornography from the Internet and possessed child pornography on a computer, an external hard drive, and compact discs. In 1997, Burman was convicted of Indecent Contact with a Child in Butler County, Iowa.

Burman was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade. Burman was sentenced to 420 months' imprisonment and fined $25,000. Special assessments of $1,200 were imposed, and Burman must also serve a 10-year term of supervised release after the prison term. He must comply with all sex offender registration and public notification requirements. There is no parole in the federal system.

Burman is being held in the United States Marshal's custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mark Tremmel and was investigated by the Mason City Police Department, the Franklin County Sheriff's Office, the Mitchell County Sheriff's Office, 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 United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is CR 10-3019.