(Sioux City)– A former Storm Lake city employee was sentenced Thursday to seven years behind bars on federal child pornography charges.
52-year-old Brian Oakleaf of Storm Lake pled guilty in September of last year to two counts of possessing child porn. Federal prosecutors say Oakleaf was arrested as the result of an investigation of an online file sharing program. They discovered the owner of the IP address, which led them to Oakleaf, who was working for the city of Storm Lake at the time. On July 29th, 2024 a search was conducted at Oakleaf’s home and his office at Storm Lake City Hall where they seized cell phones and other electronic devices. An analysis of them turned up the file sharing program investigators had been looking at.
As part of a plea agreement, Oakleaf admitted to possessing a video over 90 minutes in length with more than 20,000 images of child sexual abuse on his two cell phones.
In addition to the prison time, Oakleaf will be required to serve five years of supervised release and pay $54,000 in restitution to victims in the case.
He remains in the custody of a U.S. Marshal pending transport to a federal prison.
