Mislich Receives Almost 20 Years in Prison

Former Altamont resident Stephen B. Mislich Monday was sentenced to 235 months in federal prison for identity theft, extortion and child pornography offenses.

Mislich pleaded guilty last September to a count of identity theft for hacking into a Facebook account of an area high school student. He also pleaded guilty to five counts of extortion for his efforts to get other girls to send him nude photos of themselves. He also pleaded guilty to counts of producing child pornography and distribution of child pornography, those counts stemming from one of Mislich's victims being 16 years old at the time of the incident.

The 24-year-old Mislich was living in Bowling Green, Ohio at the time of his arrest in October 2014.

Acting US Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois James Porter said, "Clearly, the Court was as concerned for these victims as we were. This was a brutal crime, which involved the utter degradation and cyber rape of these victims. Mislich's actions were certainly deserving of the punishment meted out. The Court showed true courage in delivering the sentence that it did."

235 months is equal to more than 19-1/2 years in prison. In addition, the Court ordered Mislich to spend the rest of his life on Supervised Release and ordered him to pay a $2,000 fine.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI and the Effingham Police Department.

Information as of the date of the indictment filed at the time he was charged indicated that Mislich contacted 267 males or females using the hijacked Facebook profile.