Sioux City Man Pleads Guilty in Federal Court to Possessing Child Pornography

Daniel Kaler, 38, from Sioux City, Iowa, pled guilty September 8, 2025, in federal court in Sioux City to possessing child pornography.

At the plea hearing, Kaler admitted that from November 2023 to October 2024 he received and possessed over 7,000 images and videos of child pornography. The images and videos involved material that portrayed sadistic or masochistic conduct, as well as prepubescent children, infants, and toddlers. A CyberTip from Verizon's cloud storage company to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children connected the downloads back to Kaler's account. Law enforcement obtained and executed a search warrant for Kaler's electronic devices. Analysis of Kaler's devices showed he utilized third-party browsers called "Brave" and "Yandex" to search and download child pornography.

Sentencing before United States District Court Judge Leonard T. Strand will be set after a presentence report is prepared. Kaler was taken into custody by the United States Marshal after the guilty plea and will remain in custody pending sentencing. Kaler faces a possible maximum sentence of 20 years' imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and at least five years of supervised release following any imprisonment. There is no parole in the federal system.

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 https://www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit https://www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab "resources."

The case was investigated by the Sioux City Police Department and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kraig R. Hamit.

Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.

The case file number is 25-4016. Follow us on X @USAO_NDIA.