(DES MOINES, Iowa) – On March 8, 2018, Dale Alan Grau, age 52, of Des Moines, Iowa, appeared before United States District Court Judge Stephanie M. Rose and was sentenced to 120 months in prison following his plea of guilty to enticement and attempted enticement of a minor to engage in elicit sexual activities. Grau was ordered to serve a ten-year period of supervised release to follow his prison term.

According to the plea agreement, Grau admitted between the dates of February 20 and 23, 2017, he attempted to persuade and entice a 14 year-old boy, using the Internet, to engage in sexual activity with him.

This investigation was conducted by the Marion County Attorney’s Office, Marion County Sheriff’s Office, Knoxville Police Department, Pella Police Department, Pleasantville Police Department, Warren County Sheriff’s Office, Indianola Police Department, Mid Iowa Narcotics Task Force, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, United States Department of Homeland Security – Homeland Security Investigations, and the United States Marshals Service.

The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa as part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s “Project Safe Childhood” initiative, which was started in 2006 as a nation-wide effort to combine law enforcement investigations and prosecutions, community action, and public awareness in order to reduce the incidence of sexual exploitation of children.

Any persons having knowledge of a child being sexually abused are encouraged to call the 24-hour Iowa Sexual Abuse Hotline at 1-800-284-7821. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) also operates a Cyber Tip line at www.cybertipline.com that allows parents and children to report child pornography and other incidents of sexual exploitation of children by submitting an online form.

-This information was provided in a news release by the Department of Justice.