Donald S. Boyce, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, announced today that on Friday, March 3, 2017, Kyle W. Oberg, 40, Smithton, IL, was sentenced on two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and one count of possession of visual depictions of prepubescent minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Oberg was sentenced to 360 months of imprisonment on the first two counts and 240 months of imprisonment on the third count, all to run concurrently, for a total term of imprisonment of 30 years. The term of imprisonment is to be followed by a lifetime term of supervised release. Oberg was also fined $200 on each count, for a total fine of $600, and ordered to pay a $300 special assessment. Oberg had been detained since his arraignment on August 22, 2013.
The charges arose after the Smithton Police Department executed a state search warrant on July 18, 2013, at Oberg’s residence after receiving a complaint from a concerned mother regarding defendant’s suspicious behavior towards the mother’s six-year old daughter.
Evidence presented at sentencing established that, between December 8, 2012, and June 29, 2013, on 24 separate occasions, Oberg took a total of 337 images of the minor victim engaged in sexually explicit conduct. There were also three videos taken of the minor victim engaged in
sexually explicit conduct, including one video of the defendant digitally penetrating the then six-year old victim.
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 Aresources.@
The case was investigated by the Smithton Police Department and the United States Secret Secret’s Cyber-Crime Unit. The case was assigned to Assistant United States Attorney Angela Scott.