Nora Springs man now faces federal child porn charges

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

A Nora Springs man is facing federal charges for two counts of sexual exploitation of children, to allegedly create child pornography.

Aaron Leroy Olson, age 35, was charged last week in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa, in Waterloo. The indictment was filed Tuesday and unsealed on Thursday after Olson was arrested.

He is also facing previously filed felony charges in Floyd County District Court of sexual abuse of a young girl.

Olson is accused in the federal indictment of one count of using a girl under the age of 18 and one count of using a boy under the age of 18 “to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing visual depictions of such conduct.”

The acts allegedly occurred between October 2017 and October 2018.

The visual depictions were produced using materials that had previously been shipped and transported in interstate and foreign commerce, including a Kodak digital camera, two SD cards and a hard drive from a laptop computer that were all made outside of Iowa.

Because the devices allegedly used to create the sexual depictions were shipped across state lines, federal charges can be filed in the incidents.

Olson pleaded not guilty and is being detained in Linn County Jail under a federal hold. A trial has been set in U.S. District Court for July 8 in Cedar Rapids.

Olson had previously been charged, in November 2018 in Floyd County, with three counts of second-degree sexual abuse for three separate incidents where he allegedly showed pornography on a computer to a 5-year-old girl and/or made the girl touch his genitals. Sexual abuse in the second degree is a Class B felony.

Those events allegedly took place between Jan. 1 and Nov. 8 last year. Olson is also charged with first offense possession of marijuana, a serious misdemeanor.

Olson pleaded not guilty to the state charges and a jury trial had been set in Floyd County District Court, but in January, Olson’s attorney, Judith O’Donohoe of Charles City, filed a motion to suppress statements allegedly made by Olson.

“The defendant did not knowingly and intelligently waive his right against self-incrimination in making any statements,” the motion said, calling the statements the result of “an illegal interrogation” in violation of Olson’s rights.

The suppression hearing was to have been held Monday morning in Floyd County District Court, but that hearing has now been continued to July 8.