PEORIA, Ill. – On June 7, 2017, Timothy E. King, 30, of Peoria, Ill., pleaded guilty to one count of receipt and attempted receipt of child pornography. King waived indictment and entered his plea before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan E. Hawley, pursuant to a plea agreement. Sentencing has been scheduled for Aug. 31, 2017, before U.S. District Judge Michael M. Mihm. The offense carries a minimum sentence of five years to 20 years in prison, followed by a term of supervised release.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald L. Hanna is prosecuting the case. The U.S. Secret Service, Springfield Electronic Crimes Unit, which includes the Peoria County Sheriff’s Office, conducted the investigation.
According to court documents, King was identified after law enforcement learned that a computer at his residence was using a peer-to-peer file sharing program to download and share files containing child pornography. Based on this information, law enforcement agents with Secret Service obtained and executed a search warrant for King’s residence on Mar. 22, 2016. During the search, King agreed to be interviewed and admitted that he accessed child pornography with the computer in his home and was aware that the files he was receiving were being distributed from his computer to other locations.
At the June 7 hearing, King was taken into custody and ordered to remain detained in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
--DOJ Central District of Illinois