Des Moines, IA – On Thursday, November 10, 2022, Halston Ray Van Westen, age 22, of Story City, was sentenced to five years in prison following his plea to a charge of Possession of Child Pornography. Van Westen must also serve a ten-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.
According to court documents, on or about October 8, 2021, Van Westen knowingly possessed visual depictions of child pornography, including 390 images and 290 videos. Van Westen knew that the depictions were of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, the depictions included minors who had not attained the age of 12 years of age, and the visual depictions had been shipped in interstate or foreign commerce by any means including by computer. Van Westen used his cellphone to commit the crime.
United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. The Story County Sheriff’s Department, in conjunction with the Iowa Crimes Against Children Task Force, investigated the case.
This case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa as part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s “Project Safe Childhood” initiative, which was started in 2006 as a nationwide effort to combine law enforcement investigations and prosecutions, community action, and public awareness in order to reduce the incidence of sexual exploitation of children. Any persons having knowledge of a child being sexually abused are encouraged to call the Iowa Sexual Abuse Hotline at 1-800-284-7821.