Lake Park Man Pleads Guilty to Possessing Child Pornography

Chris Kurt, 44, from Lake Park, Iowa, pled guilty October 5, 2026, in federal court in Sioux City, to possessing child pornography.

At the plea hearing, Kurt admitted that from January 1, 2017, through June 23, 2025, he received and possessed over 103 videos and 132 images of child pornography that was backed up to his cloud storage. Law enforcement executed a search warrant at Kurt's residence and seized several electronic devices. Forensic review of the devices located an additional cache of over 10,000 images and over 1,000 videos of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Some of the depictions involved prepubescent minors, or a minor who had not yet attained the age of 12 years, and involved sadistic or masochistic conduct or other depictions of violence or other depictions of violence or the sexual abuse or exploitation of an infant or toddler. In an interview with law enforcement, Kurt admitted that he would routinely make screen recordings on his phone while visiting websites that contained CSAM. Kurt told agents he did not know how much CSAM would be on his devices because he had downloaded so much over the years.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys' Offices and 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 Justice.gov/PSC.

Sentencing before United States District Court Judge Leonard T. Strand will be set after a presentence report is prepared. Kurt remains in custody of the United States Marshal pending sentencing. Kurt faces a possible maximum sentence of 20 years' imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and at least five years of supervised release following any imprisonment.

The case was investigated by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, Lake Park, Iowa Police Department, and the Dickinson County Sheriff's Office and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kraig R. Hamit.

Court file information 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 26-4023. Follow us on X @USAO_NDIA.