Osage Man Sentenced to 12 Years in Federal Prison for Receiving Child Pornography

A man who downloaded hundreds of photos and videos of child pornography was sentenced today to 12 years in federal prison.

Damon Wesley Powers, age 44, from Osage, Iowa, received the prison term after a July 1, 2026, guilty plea to one count of receipt of child pornography.

Evidence at a prior hearing showed that law enforcement officers searched Powers's house in Osage in June 2025. Agents found child pornography on his phone, including depictions of prepubescent children. Powers had also stored hundreds of additional photos and videos of child pornography in a cloud-based account. In an interview with law enforcement officers, Powers admitted that he had sent and received child pornography.

Powers was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge Leonard T. Strand. Powers was sentenced to 144 months' imprisonment and was ordered to pay $24,350 in special assessments and restitution to victims. Powers 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 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.

Powers is being held in the United States Marshal's custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Devra T. Hake and investigated by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Cyber Crime Bureau, the Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce, and the Osage Police Department.

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-CR-2015.

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