Freeburg Woman Indicted on Child Pornography Offense

Stephen R. Wigginton, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, announced today that on December 21, 2010, CHERYL L. GROTH, 42, of Freeburg, Illinois, was charged by a federal grand jury sitting in East St. Louis, Illinois, in an indictment charging her with receipt of child pornography. The violation is alleged to have taken place on June 13, 2010, in St. Clair County, Illinois. GROTH has been ordered detained pending trial, which is currently scheduled for February 22, 2011.

If convicted, GROTH faces a term of imprisonment of not less than five years but not more than 20 years, a $250,000 fine, or both, and a term of supervised release of five years to life.

An indictment is a formal charge against a defendant. Under the law, a defendant is presumed to be innocent of a charge and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

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 United States 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.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Metro East Cyber Crimes and Analysis Task Force. The case is assigned to Assistant United States Attorney Angela Scott for prosecution.