Jury Convicts Coggon Man of Child Pornography Offenses

A Coggon man who received and possessed child pornography was convicted by a jury on Wednesday.

42-year old Matthew Jason Manos was convicted of receipt of child pornography and possession of child pornography, including a depiction of a pre-pubescent minor or a minor who had not attained 12 years of age. The conviction follows a three-day trial in federal court in Cedar Rapids. The verdict was returned following about two and a half hours of jury deliberations.

The evidence at trial showed that in February 2023, law enforcement officers searched Manos’s residence in Coggon and took his cell phone.  Between December 2022 and February 2023, Manos had downloaded images of child pornography.  He viewed the images on his cell phone multiple times.  Manos then moved to Illinois, where he was arrested in August 2023.  During his arrest, law enforcement officers took his new cell phone.  Evidence showed that Manos had used that new phone to access child pornography.  Manos was previously convicted of continuous sexual abuse of a child, lascivious acts with a child, lascivious conduct with a child, dissemination and exhibition of obscene material to minors, and indecent exposure.

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

Sentencing before United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams will be set after a pre-sentence report is prepared.  Manos remains in custody of the United States Marshal pending sentencing.  Manos faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years’ imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of 40 years’ imprisonment, a $500,000 fine, and a lifetime term of supervised release following any imprisonment.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Devra T. Hake and Ashley Corkery and was investigated by the Linn County Sheriff’s Office and the Cedar Rapids Police Department, with assistance by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.