A 24-year-old former Altamont man was sentenced today to nearly 20 years in federal prison for identity theft, extortion, and child pornography offenses, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois James L. Porter, announced today.

Evidence showed Stephen B. Mislich, of Bowling Green, Ohio stole the online identity of a victim from Effingham County, Illinois, and then used that identity to extort and attempt to extort nude images and videos from several other victims in the area.

One of the victims was 16 years old at the time of the offense and the images Mislich forced her to produce constituted child pornography under federal law. Besides the almost 20 year sentence, the Court also ordered Mislich to spend the rest of his life on Supervised Release and ordered him to pay a $2,000.00 fine.

The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Effingham Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Thomas E. Leggans.

According to Porter, this was a brutal crime which involved the utter degradation and cyber rape of these victims.

He said Mislich’s actions were certainly deserving of the punishment meted out and that the Court showed true courage in delivering the sentence that it did.