SIOUX CITY – A fired Northern Iowa teacher has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after cops uncovered explicit evidence of a sexual relationship she carried on with a young teen student.
Samantha Meyer-Davis (pictured at top), 32, from Rutland, Iowa, was sentenced on October 6, 2025, in federal court in Sioux City, Iowa. On April 30, 2025, Meyer-Davis pled guilty to sexual exploitation of a child.
Evidence at the plea and sentencing hearings showed that from May 2022, through November 2023, Meyer-Davis engaged in sexually exploiting a student as well as disseminating and exhibiting obscene materials to the victim. Meyer-Davis was a middle school teacher at the time of the incidents and met with school administrators on several occasions and denied any inappropriate relationship. Administrators reminded Meyer-Davis of her professional and ethical obligations to her students and encouraged her to cease and desist any inappropriate relationship with the student. When interviewed by law enforcement, Meyer-Davis continued to deny any inappropriate relationship until she was confronted with photographic evidence of her kissing the student who was in a state of undress. Evidence further showed that Meyer-Davis and the victim exchanged over 130 photographs, and over 60 videos related to and depicting child pornography, including materials that portrayed sadistic and masochistic conduct.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006, by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit http://www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”
Sentencing was held before United States District Court Judge Leonard T. Strand. Judge Strand said, as a teacher, in a position of trust, Meyer-Davis was “every parent’s worst nightmare when sending kids to school” and that there was “no way to overstate how serious and aggravated this is.” The Court noted this conduct went on for some time, that this was not a one-time mistake, stating “there was no indication this would have stopped on its own. This only ended because law enforcement got involved.”
Meyer-Davis was sentenced to 240 months’ imprisonment and must serve a 5-year term of supervised release following imprisonment. There is no parole in the federal system. Meyer-Davis was also ordered to pay $13,243.67 in restitution to the victim in this case. Meyer-Davis remains in custody of the United States Marshal until she can be transported to a federal prison.
The case was investigated by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement, Iowa Special Enforcement Operations Bureau, and the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kraig R. Hamit.