News : Urbana Man Sentenced to 30 Years in Federal Prison for Sexually Exploiting Child

Michael Heinitz, Urbana sentenced to 30 years in prison for sexual exploitation of a child

            A man who sexually exploited a child was sentenced January 25, 2024, to 30 years in federal prison.

            Michael Heinitz, age 20, of Urbana, received the sentence after an August 4, 2023, guilty plea to one count of sexual exploitation of a child.  At the plea hearing, Heinitz admitted that, between August and September 2022, he recorded sexually explicit videos of a four-year-old girl.  Evidence presented at the sentencing hearing showed that Heinitz distributed, received, and possessed child pornography.

            Heinitz was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams.  Heinitz was sentenced to 360 months' imprisonment.  He was ordered to make $21,000 in restitution to seven victims depicted in child pornography he possessed.  He must also serve a five-year term of supervised release after the prison term, and he must comply with all sex offender registration and public notification requirements.

            This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Elizabeth Dupuich and Mark Tremmel and was investigated by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Urbana Police Department, and the Iowa State Patrol.

            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."