Danville Man Sentenced to 180 Months in Prison for Attempted Sexual Exploitation of Children and Attempted Receipt of Child Pornography

URBANA, ILL. — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (Department of Justice), published as received.

URBANA, Ill. – A Danville, Illinois, man, Joseph Allen Carpenter, 52, was sentenced today to 180 months of imprisonment, to be followed by eight years of supervised release, for attempted sexual exploitation of a child and attempted receipt of child pornography.

Carpenter was convicted of the offenses following a jury trial in June 2024. At the sentencing hearing, the government highlighted evidence from the jury trial showing that from November 2021 and into early 2022, Carpenter communicated with an individual he believed to be the father of an eight-year-old girl via text communication applications. In those communications, Carpenter requested various child pornography images and encouraged abuse of the alleged minor.

Also at the hearing, Senior U.S. District Judge Michael M. Mihm found that Carpenter’s offense should be considered more serious than others because of his attempt to exploit a person he believed to be a child under the age of twelve. Judge Mihm commented that he found Carpenter’s conduct “reprehensible.”

The statutory penalties for attempted sexual exploitation of a child are a minimum of 15 years of imprisonment, a maximum of 30 years of imprisonment, up to a $250,000 fine, and up to a lifetime term of supervised release. The statutory penalties for attempted receipt of child pornography are a minimum of five years of imprisonment, a maximum of 20 years of imprisonment, up to a $250,000 fine, and up to a lifetime term of supervised release.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Springfield Field Office, investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys William J. Lynch and Timothy A. Bass represented the government in the prosecution.

This case was investigated as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative by the U.S. Department of Justice to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. 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.