Peoria, Ill. - Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Shadid today sentenced Brian A. Miller, 37, of Varna, Ill., to serve 18 years in federal prison, to be followed by 15 years of supervised release. Miller was convicted following a two-day bench trial, on May 20, 2014, of 22 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. Miller has remained detained in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service since August 2013, when he was arrested and charged in a federal criminal complaint.
Evidence the government presented during the trial demonstrated that from at least July 2011 through May 2012, on at least 22 occasions, Miller used a cell phone to take images of minors from a hole in the wall of his home while the minors were using a shower.
The charges were investigated by the U.S. Secret Service; the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office, the Peoria County Sheriff’s Office and the Bloomington Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy A. Bass prosecuted the case.
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.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
