Elk Grove man sent to prison in child porn case

An Elk Grove Village man has been sentenced to nearly nine years in federal prison on charges he possessed child pornography on his home computer and distributed several images online.

U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer ordered Jeffrey Castic, 45, imprisoned for 106 months on charges brought after a U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement investigation led agents to the Elk Grove Village man's home.

Court documents say authorities found hundreds of images and more than 50 videos depicting child pornography on Castic's computer. They also found evidence he transferred 10 items of child pornography to another computer user over the Internet, according to an April 2009 indictment.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Erik Hogstrom said federal investigators were led to Castic after discovering child pornography being distributed via a computer server in Washington state. That led authorities to a second computer in Little Rock, Ark., from which they tracked activity to Castic's home computer.

Under the terms of an April 2010 plea agreement in which he admitted to charges of distributing and possessing child pornography, the expected sentencing range for Castic was between 97 and 121 months in prison.

His defense, however, sought a term of probation or shorter prison term, arguing that Castic did not set up or operate any of the online services he used to obtain and distribute child pornography and had been found a low to moderate risk to re-offend.

But federal prosecutors rejected the argument, saying Castic's offenses exploited dozens of victims of child sexual abuse.

“Every one of those children has parents or guardians. They have names and siblings. They go to school somewhere,” Hogstrom wrote in a court memorandum. “And, as they do, without even knowing it, people like the defendant are exploiting them.”