Steven Blosser

A 40-year-old Columbia man was indicted Friday on federal child pornography charges.

Steven D. Blosser was arraigned Friday on a federal indictment charging him with receipt of child pornography, a news release issued Monday by Donald S. Boyce, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, announced.

The indictment alleges that from September 2015 to February 2016, Blosser knowingly received child porn.

His trial is scheduled for May 1.

The penalty for receipt of child porn is a prison term of five to 20 years, a fine up to $250,000, plus supervised release.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched by the Department of Justice to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse.

The case was investigated by the Columbia Police Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Springfield Child Exploitation Task Force.

The case is assigned to Assistant U.S. Attorney Angela Scott.

Blosser was arrested last March by Columbia police, who executed a search warrant at his residence on Burroughs Road.

Blosser knowingly possessed several visual reproductions of a child under the age of 18 engaged in sexual acts with another person, court information alleges.