DAVENPORT, Iowa – A Prairie City man was sentenced on November 18, 2025, to 180 months in federal prison for possession of child pornography and 24 months in federal prison for revocation of his supervised release.
According to public court documents and evidence presented at sentencing, Anthony Charles VanMeter, 55, was on federal supervised release for a conviction of possession of child pornography. In October 2024, law enforcement visited another individual under federal supervision and located VanMeter. VanMeter admitted two cell phones at the residence belonged to him. One of the cell phones was later found to child sexual abuse material, including more than 75 photographs and 250 videos.
At sentencing, the Court also found VanMeter violated the terms of his federal supervised release for his 2016 conviction for possession of child pornography in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa. VanMeter received an 84-month sentence in 2016, was released from prison in 2022, and his supervised release was revoked in October 2022, November 2023, and September 2024.
After completing his term of imprisonment, VanMeter will be required to serve a 10-year term of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system. Vanmeter was also ordered to pay $24,000 in restitution.
United States Attorney David C. Waterman of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
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 the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, 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 https://www.justice.gov/psc.
