PEORIA, Ill. – U.S. District Judge James E. Shadid yesterday ordered Daniel A. Betty, 28, of Decatur, Ill., to serve 22 years in federal prison for sexually exploiting and enticing a 14-year-old girl in September and October 2019. In imposing sentence, Judge Shadid described Betty as a predator who manipulated the minor victim.

Betty admitted that he posed as a teenaged boy in a social application known as ‘Spotafriend’ to target minors and meet for sexual activity and to send him sexually explicit images. ‘Spotafriend’ advertises itself as a “swiping app for teens ages 13-19,” that uses internet and cellular data to connect individuals. 

Betty entered his formal pleas of guilty yesterday to two counts of sexual exploitation of a child, one count of enticement of a minor, and one count of receipt of child pornography as charged in the indictment returned by the grand jury in January 2020.

Betty has remained in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service since his arrest on Dec. 16, 2019.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Elly M. Peirson represented the government in the prosecution. The charges were investigated by the Champaign Police Department, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations, and the Decatur Police Department, in cooperation with the Champaign County State’s Attorney’s Office.

The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. 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.

URBANA, Ill. – A grand jury today returned an indictment that charges Daniel A. Betty, 27, of the 100 block of S. 29th Street, Decatur, Ill., with sexual exploitation and enticement of a minor and receiving child pornography in September 2019.

Betty was previously arrested and charged in a criminal complaint on Dec. 16, 2019. Betty made his initial court appearance on Dec. 16, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Eric I. Long, in Urbana, who ordered that Betty remain detained in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.

According to the affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint, Betty met a minor female from Champaign, Ill., using the social application “Spotafriend.” According to the affidavit, Spotafriend advertises itself as a “swiping app for teens ages 13-19,” that uses internet and cellular data to connect individuals to become friends. The app claims that it “is not a teen dating app.”

According to the affidavit, Betty allegedly portrayed himself as a 17-year-old male from Decatur, Ill. Using the app, Betty allegedly began communication with the minor female, and in October 2019, Betty drove from Decatur to Champaign and met the minor. Prior to meeting, Betty had told the minor he was 19 years old.

If convicted, the statutory maximum penalty for sexual exploitation of a minor (two counts) is a minimum 15 years to 30 years in prison; for enticement of a minor, the penalty is 10 years to life; and for receiving child pornography the penalty is five to 20 years in prison. 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Elly M. Peirson is representing the government in the prosecution. The charges are the result of an investigation by the Champaign and Decatur Police Departments in cooperation with the Champaign County State’s Attorney’s Office.

Members of the public are reminded that an indictment is merely an accusation; the defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty. 

The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide Department of Justice initiative to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.