A man arrested this week in Osceola is charged with producing child pornography. When officers with a warrant arrived at the home of 37-year-old Terence Edgington, they say he admitted taking pictures of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct, and storing the photos on his computer.

An agency better known for dealing with illegal immigrants conducted the investigation — Tim Counts is a spokesman for “ICE.” Counts says the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement deals not only with immigration but also customs — laws dealing with goods and information that crosses international boundaries illegally. That applies to child pornography when it’s sent world-wide, via the internet. To accomplish that the federal agency created “Operation Predator.”

He says it’s nationwide — in fact, it’s a worldwide initiative to crack down on child pornographers, child-sex “tourists,” anyone who exploits children anywhere in the world. Since Operation Predator was begun in July 2003 he says they’ve used it to arrest 7-thousand, 856 people. He says that includes 103 people in Iowa. It’s a big issue, and Counts says the Internet has made it worse.

Whereas pedophiles used to have to print out “hard copies” of their photos of children and send them through the mail, Counts says “Now it’s as easy as a click of a button to send child pornography not only across the country but around the world.” One thing on their side is that pornographers don’t realize how well today’s investigators can see and find them, he says.

Counts says, “It’s amazing how our investigators are able to use CSI-like information and tools to identify, track down, arrest and prosecute child pornographers.” He says the agency’s succeeded in convicting child pornographers both here and in countries around the world.

In the situation in which Edgington’s been arrested in Osceola, Counts says if convicted he’ll face “an absolute minimum” of fifteen years in prison, up to thirty years, and possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines. Osceola Police and the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office helped in the investigation.

In mid-March, an Osceola woman was arrested in a worldwide crackdown on child-porn distribution rings, and charged with hosting an Internet forum where people distributed images of children being molested.

A Plymouth county man’s been sentenced to prison in the hit-and-run death of a jogger in rural LeMars two years ago. A jury found 38-year-old Richard Heien guilty of homicide by motor vehicle, involuntary manslaughter, and leaving the scene of a personal-injury accident.

A judge Thursday sentenced Heien to up to 26 years in prison for the death of Joan Wilson, who was hit on a county road near her home in May of 2004. Heien had told authorities he hit a deer. His lawyer says they’ll appeal the conviction and the sentence.

The victim’s husband, Neal Wilson, addressed Heien and the court before sentencing. Neal Wilson said: “Regardless of how long your sentence, Richard Heien, that can’t change the facts of what happened and what you’ve caused. It is a little bit more bitter, for the family and myself, to look at you and see you not say anything, or lie, as you’ve done and as the judge indicated, and not be a man enough to take responsibility for what you’ve done.”

Heien had claimed he hit a deer. Heien’s attorney, Greg Jones, asked that his client be acquitted as the evidence was all circumstantial. Jones said evidence was presented that Heien had been drinking beer that afternoon, that he’d had three or four beers, but there was no other evidence to support that if Heien were driving, that he was under the influence of alcohol.

The former town clerk of Valeria has pleaded guilty to theft. The Jasper County Auditor reports nearly 18-thousand dollars was identified as improper spending and undeposited collections. It includes payments to the mayor, who was a housemate of City Clerk Tina Jaber at the time.

After the shortage of city funds was discovered, Valeria Mayor Tina Rivers told the council she’d been unaware that Jaber spent city funds as part of their living expenses. The audit also shows Jaber wrote fifty checks to herself for more than fifteen-thousand dollars, and three checks written to Mayor Rivers for around 400 dollars were also listed as improper. Jaber will be sentenced June 5 in the Jasper County Court.