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

PEORIA, Ill. – U.S. District Judge Jonathan E. Hawley sentenced a Peoria, Illinois, man, Michael Dean Dupoy, 53, to 216 months’ imprisonment, to be followed by a lifetime term of supervised release, for possession of child pornography. Judge Hawley also sentenced Dupoy, who was serving a term of supervised release for an earlier conviction for receipt of child pornography, to 24 months’ imprisonment for violating the terms of that supervised release. He further ordered that the 24 months sentence be served consecutively to the 216-month sentence, for a total sentence of 240 months.

At the sentencing hearing on August 20, 2025, Judge Hawley heard arguments relating to Dupoy’s history of arrests, including his 2008 conviction for receipt of child pornography. For that offense, he was sentenced to 220 months’ imprisonment, followed by a lifetime term of supervised release. Dupoy began his supervised release in early October 2024. Later that same month, while visiting Dupoy at his residence, a United States Probation Officer noticed a SanDisk Model 512GB Micro SD card. Although Dupoy claimed it just contained movies, the officer seized the card and submitted it for analysis. While waiting for the analysis, the officer visited Dupoy in December 2024 at his home and found that Dupoy had an unmonitored cellular phone, which was prohibited under the conditions of his supervised release. Analysis of the SD card and the cellular phone revealed that Dupoy had 482 images and 58 videos of child sexual abuse materials. Also on the SD card and the phone were photos of children who came into the store where he worked.

Dupoy was arrested in December 2024 in relation to the supervised release violation. A federal grand jury returned an indictment in a new criminal case in February 2025 charging Dupoy with possession of child pornography. Dupoy pleaded guilty in April 2025. He has remained in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service since his arrest.

At the sentencing hearing, Judge Hawley found that the sentence was necessary to protect the public and deter Dupoy from further criminal conduct, noting that his criminal conduct began almost immediately upon his release from prison. The judge said that he saw “nothing to think [that Dupoy] would not immediately engage in this behavior again” and said that the “the surest way to deter” Dupoy was to have him in custody. The judge concluded that Dupoy needed “to be removed from society to protect the public.”

Because of Dupoy’s prior conviction, the statutory penalties for possession of child pornography are 10 to 20 years’ imprisonment, to be followed by a five-year to life term of supervised release.

The United States Probation Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Springfield Field Office, investigated the case. Criminal Chief Darilynn J. Knauss represented the government in the prosecution.

The case against Dupoy was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative by the 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