Rockford Man Pleads Guilty to Child Pornography Charges

ROCKFORD — A Rockford man pleaded guilty Friday before U.S. District Judge Philip G. Reinhard to charges of transportation of child pornography via the internet and possession of child pornography.

DONOVAN HEIDENREICH, 25, admitted in a written plea agreement that on Sept. 25, 2017, he used a computer to send a video file over the internet to another user of the KIK messaging application.  The image depicted an actual male child under the age of 18 engaged in sexually explicit conduct.  Heidenreich also admitted that on Nov. 28, 2017, he possessed a laptop computer that contained more than 600 images of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Heidenreich further admitted he traded images of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct with other persons in return for his receipt of images of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Sentencing for Heidenreich is set for June 8, 2020, at 9:00 a.m.  For transporting child pornography, HEIDENREICH faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum sentence of 20 years. For possession of child pornography, the maximum is 20 years’ imprisonment.   The sentence will be determined by the United States District Court, guided by the Sentencing Guidelines.

The guilty plea was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; and Emmerson Buie, Jr., Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago office of the FBI. The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael D. Love.