Man pleads guilty of receiving child pornography

St. Clair County man has pleaded guilty of two counts of receiving child pornography. U.S. Attorney Steven D. Weinhoeft has announced today that 66-yeard old James K. Young, of Dupo, Illinois has pleaded guilty of these charges.

Young is also charged with five counts of distributing child pornography but those charges have agreed to be dismissed at the sentencing hearing by the United States. The sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 12, 2020, in East St. Louis, Illinois. Law enforcement had discovered Young during an online, undercover investigation.

A federal search warrant was executed at Young’s home on May 3, 2018. 2,441 images of child pornography were found in his seized desktop computer. Young admitted, as part of his plea that he had knowingly received child pornography on Nov. 7, 2017, and April 29, 2018.

FBI had investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Angela Scott is prosecuting the case. Project Safe Childhood brought in this case. This project was launched in May 2006 as a nationwide initiative by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.

The project is led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section. The project’s mandate is to marshal federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.