James L. Porter, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, announced today that on February 17, 2016, Nicholas J. Perjak, 34, a Monroe County resident, pled guilty to a four-count Superseding Indictment charging him, in Count 1, with Attempt to Access with Intent to View Child Pornography; and, in Counts 2 through 4, with Access with Intent to View Child Pornography. Perjak’s sentencing date is June 3, 2016, in East St. Louis, Illinois. On Counts 1 through 4, Perjak faces a term of imprisonment of not more than ten (10) years, a fine up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release of five (5) years to life.
The charges arose from an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s New Orleans’ Office in which IP addresses were captured when an individual, using a particular IP address, visited a website that contained links to child pornography and subsequently clicked on a link that indicated, through the description of the link, that the link would lead to child pornography. An administrative subpoena issued as part of the investigation determined that one of the captured IP addresses was registered to Perjak at his prior residence in Waterloo, Illinois. The investigation by the FBI’s New Orleans’ office revealed that Perjak attempted to access child pornography on this website on May 14, May 18, and June 25, 2011 (Count 1).
Based on this information, Task Force Officers with the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force, located in Fairview Heights, Illinois, conducted an interview at Perjak’s residence on December 13, 2012. Perjak provided a voluntary statement in which he identified a Dell laptop computer as the computer he primarily used for work and personal business. Perjak also admitted viewing child pornography for approximately two years, and indicated that he last viewed child pornography "in the last week." Perjak admitted being addicted to child pornography, and said that he had been addicted to it for the past three years. Perjak also admitted viewing child pornography of girls between ten and sixteen years of age. Perjak said that he never saved or stored any child pornography on his Dell laptop computer. After the interview ended, Perjak gave the officers written consent to seize his Dell laptop computer.
A forensic review of the Dell laptop computer revealed approximately 6,164 image files of child pornography. The forensic review also revealed that on November 11, November 24, and December 3, 2012, Perjak searched for and accessed both image and video files of child pornography using Internet Explorer (Counts 2-4). The forensic review also indicated that the image and/or video files of child pornography that had been accessed and viewed on these dates had been downloaded to the laptop computer.
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 New Orleans’ Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Springfield Child Exploitation Task Force. The case is assigned to Assistant United States Attorney Angela Scott.