Iowa man sentenced to 20 years for receipt of child pornography

DES MOINES, Iowa — A judge sentenced Jacob Chance Greer, 27, of Des Moines to 20 years in prison for knowingly receiving child pornography. The judge also ordered Greer to pay restitution of $12,000 to victims of the child pornography he collected and placed him on supervised release for a term of five years following his imprisonment. He is also required to register as a sex offender.

Greer was originally arrested on federal child pornography charges in 2016 as the result of an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). About a month after he was released pending trial, Greer faked his death by abandoning his car near a lake in Dallas County and leaving a suicide note nearby before absconding. The U.S. Marshals’ Fugitive Task Force developed information that led to Greer’s arrest in Spanaway, Washington on April 4, 2022.

According to court documents, Greer received, possessed and distributed child pornography on the internet over several years. He tried to avoid detection by storing his collection on internet platforms instead of on his own electronic devices, and he occasionally deleted files from his devices. On Feb. 4, 2015, authorities executed a search warrant at his residence in Des Moines and seized numerous electronic devices belonging to Greer. They found child pornography and digital evidence indicating that he sought out and traded child pornography.

The investigation started in 2014 as part of Project Hydra, a joint investigation by Homeland Security Investigations and the York, Ottawa Regional Police in Ontario, Canada that targets persons who produce and distribute child pornography on the internet. Other agencies that assisted with the case include the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the U.S. Forest Service, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the U.S. State Department.

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa and Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Peyton Gaumer prosecuted the case as part of the United States Department of Justice’s “Project Safe Child” initiative, which the DOJ 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. If you have knowledge of a child being sexually abused, call the Iowa Sexual Abuse Hotline at 800-284-7821.

HSI is the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), responsible for investigating transnational crime and threats, specifically those criminal organizations that exploit the global infrastructure through which international trade, travel, and finance move. HSI’s workforce of more than 8,700 employees consists of more than 6,000 special agents assigned to 237 cities throughout the United States, and 93 overseas locations in 56 countries. HSI’s international presence represents DHS’s largest investigative law enforcement presence abroad and one of the largest international footprints in U.S. law enforcement.

Learn more about HSI’s mission to combat child exploitation in our community on Twitter @HSIKansasCity.