Former Waterloo Resident Sentenced To Federal Prison

James L. Porter, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, announced today that on June 3, 2016, Nicholas J. Perjak, 35, formerly of Waterloo, IL, was sentenced on 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 received 60 months in federal prison on all counts, to run concurrently, followed by 10 years of supervised release on each count, also to run concurrently. Perjak was fined $100 on each count, for a total fine of $400, and ordered to pay a $400 special assessment.

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. The investigation by the 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 conducted an interview with Perjak on December 13, 2012. Perjak provided a 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 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 aged between ten and sixteen. Perjak said that he never saved or stored any child pornography on 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).

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 FBI’s New Orleans’ Office and the FBI’s Springfield Child Exploitation Task Force. The case was assigned to Assistant United States Attorney Angela Scott.