Former Villa Park Man Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Transporting Child Pornography

CHICAGO—A former Villa Park man was sentenced today to 10 years in federal prison for transporting child pornography. The defendant, James Thielberg, 61, pleaded guilty last September, admitting that he used his personal computer between 2000 and 2010 to search for, download, view, and trade child pornography, and that he transported illegal images in interstate commerce via computer. On three separate occasions in late 2009 and early 2010, three different undercover law enforcement officers, all outside of Illinois, posed as Thielberg’s “friends” using an Internet-based peer-to-peer file-sharing network and downloaded numerous images of child pornography from Thielberg’s computer.

The 120-month sentence, followed by lifetime supervised release and restrictions on using computers and the Internet, was imposed by U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly. Thielberg was also ordered to pay $5,000 restitution to identified victims of child pornography whose images were transported by Thielberg or stored on his computer. He must serve at least 85 percent of his sentence before he is eligible for release and there is no parole in the federal prison system.

The sentence was announced today by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Thielberg has been in federal custody since he was arrested in January 2010 after FBI agents executed a federal search warrant at his residence. In total, Thielberg possessed approximately 22,000 images and approximately 186 videos of child pornography and child erotica. He sorted, categorized, and catalogued some of his collection by creating user folders. The collection of child pornography demonstrated Thielberg’s strong sexual interest in children, and more particularly, his strong sexual interest in pain, bondage, and sadomasochistic behavior with children and infants, according to court documents.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI’s Innocent Images Task Force. The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Tiffany Tracy.