Chicago Area Man Sentenced To 22 Years In Prison For Manufacturing Child Pornogrphy

CHICAGO ― A Chicago area man was sentenced today to 22 years in federal prison for producing child pornography involving two 16-year-old girls he met in private Internet chat rooms in 2012 and induced to take sexually explicit photos of themselves and send them to him. The defendant, MARK BARRETO, 36, of Elmwood Park and formerly of Chicago, who has been in custody since he was arrested on federal charges a year ago, pleaded guilty in June of this year to one count of manufacturing child pornography.

In imposing the sentence, U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang noted the “extremely serious” nature of Barreto’s crime and the vulnerability of both the teenage victims and others as young as 5-years-old who were discovered in pornographic images that Barreto possessed. The judge also ordered Barreto placed on court supervision for 10 years following his release from prison, and ordered him to pay $8,600 restitution to a known victim of child pornography who was identified through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

“Whatever face [Barreto] may have presented to his family, co-workers, and the world at large, it is now apparent that he spent considerable time collecting and viewing images and videos of young children being raped and sexually abused,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Sawyer argued in seeking a lengthy sentence.

Manufacturing child pornography carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum of 30 years in prison.

U.S. postal inspectors conducted a search of Barreto’s residence in October 2012 and found a laptop computer that contained approximately 433 images and 15 videos of child pornography, as well as email accounts showing that he had been communicating with various minor females, including the two he induced to produce images and videos of child pornography for him.

The sentence was announced by Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Tony Gómez, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Chicago. The Bolingbrook and Naperville police departments and the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office, which initially charged Barreto before the case was adopted federally, assisted in the investigation.