A Perry man has been sentenced to federal prison following a child pornography conviction.

On September 17th U.S. District Court sentenced 38-year-old Michael James Hidlebaugh to 97 months in prison for receipt of child pornography. Hidlebaugh was also ordered to serve five years of supervised study following his release and pay $21,000 in restitution. 

The investigation began in September of 2017 when law enforcement received a lead from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that child pornography had been uploaded to Hidlebaugh’s email account. A search warrant was executed at Hidlebaugh’s residence in May of 2018, where law enforcement found hundreds of images and videos of child pornography on several electronic devices owned by Hidlebaugh. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation – Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the FBI Child Exploitation Task Force lead the investigation. The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa prosecuted the case.