On June 29, 2018, Michael B. Stephens, Jr., 43, of Red Bud, Illinois, was sentenced to 25
years in federal prison for producing child pornography, United States Attorney for the Southern
District of Illinois, Donald S. Boyce, announced today. Stephens previously pled guilty on March
22 to a two-count indictment charging him with sexually exploiting a minor on two occasions in
November 2016.
The charges arose from an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
and the Waterloo, Illinois, Police Department. Evidence at the plea and sentencing hearings
established that on numerous occasions in 2016, Stephens videotaped himself engaging in sexual
intercourse with a minor female at his residence in Waterloo, Illinois. The evidence also
established that Stephens was both physically and verbally abusive to the minor female during this
time.
In addition to the 25 year sentence, United States District Judge Michael J. Reagan imposed
a ten-year term of supervised release and ordered Stephens to pay a $500 fine. As a result of his
conviction, Stephens will also have to register as a sex offender after he is released from prison.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched
in 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
www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit
www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources."
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Springfield Child
Exploitation Task Force and the Waterloo, Illinois, Police Department. The case was prosecuted
by Assistant United States Attorney Daniel T. Kapsak with assistance fromMonroe County State’s
Attorney Christopher Hitzemann.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
