Center Junction Man Sentenced to 18 Months in Federal Prison for Failing to Update Sex Offender Registration (DOJ)

A man who failed to update his sex offender registration was sentenced on February 23, 2026, to 18 months in federal prison.

Colton Rickels, age 30, of Center Junction, Iowa, received the sentence after a September 26, 2025, guilty plea to one count of failure to update registration as a sex offender. At the plea hearing, Rickels admitted that, between July 2024 and April 2025, he knowingly failed to update his sex offender registration by failing to update the Internet identifiers he used.

Rickels was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams. Rickels was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment. He must also serve a five-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mark Tremmel and was investigated by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Anamosa Police Department, the Jones County Sheriff's Office, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

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 www.usdoj.gov/pscLinks to other government and non-government sites will typically appear with the "external link" icon to indicate that you are leaving the Department of Justice website when you click the link.. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/pscLinks to other government and non-government sites will typically appear with the "external link" icon to indicate that you are leaving the Department of Justice website when you click the link. and click on the tab "resources."

Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.plLinks to other government and non-government sites will typically appear with the "external link" icon to indicate that you are leaving the Department of Justice website when you click the link.. The case file number is CR 25-47.

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