Champaign County Man Ordered to Serve 30 Years in Prison for Child Exploitation, Pornography

Urbana, Ill. – U.S. District Judge Colin S. Bruce today sentenced a Champaign county man, Clinton Schaffer, 45, to serve 30 years in federal prison for sexual exploitation of a minor and distribution of child pornography. Schaffer was also ordered to a lifetime term of supervised release following his release from prison, and to pay restitution in the amount of $15,396 to two victims of the pornography distribution offense.

On Jan. 13, 2017, Schaffer, of Fisher, Ill., pled guilty to the offenses. Schaffer has remained in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service since his arrest on April 15, 2016.

Supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney Eugene L. Miller represented the government at today’s hearing. The U.S. Secret Service and the Bloomington Police Department, a participating agency in the U.S. Attorney’s Central Illinois Cyber Crime Unit, conducted the investigation.

The 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 U.S. 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.