Skokie Man Who Bartered Child Pornography Sentenced To 25 Years

CHICAGO — A Skokie man who admitted trying to trade child pornography for the opportunity to molest two children was sentenced Tuesday to 25 years in federal prison, followed by 25 years of supervised release.

Ronald Feder, 32, of the 7500 block of Kolmar Avenue, was out on bail on prior child pornography charges when he began communicating online with an undercover government agent in 2017, according to his plea agreement.

"[Feder] is a serious danger to the public. He is now, and will be upon his release. At the time [he] was arrested in this case, he was aggressively attempting to obtain access to children to molest and, indeed, was using his vast collection of child pornography as a bartering tool to that end," Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Dixon said.

The earlier charges resulted from Feder's time working as a civilian contractor for the U.S. Department of Defense on a Navy oiler in 2014 in Japan and the Philippines, court records show. He was indicted in September 2016 on charges of possession of child pornography by a person employed by the U.S. armed forces outside the United States and released ahead of trial. The terms of his pretrial release forbade him from using the internet, among other things.

Despite those restrictions, Feder responded to a Craiglist advertisement posted by an agent with the criminal investigation division of the Wisconsin Department of Justice looking for someone interested in a "taboo request," according to an affidavit from the Department of Homeland Security agent in charge of the Milwaukee office.

I have a Taboo request but do not want to put in title or in post. I am seeking something that is not easy to talk about or ask just any random stranger. I am discrete and disease free and looking for serious inquires. Please respond with the most Taboo thing you would do or provide and I will respond if you email subject is what I am looking for. Not looking to judge or report anyone, just looking to use my money to get something I have been wanting to try.

According to his plea agreement, he told the officer he had a "collection" to share and wanted to talk about it on Wire, an encrypted messaging app. The two communicated for nearly two weeks over the app, with Feder sending the undercover officer several videos and dozens of images of child pornography on the app, according to the plea agreement.

Then at a Dec. 7, 2017, meeting in a Lincolnwood coffee shop, Feder gave the undercover officer a flash drive containing more than 450 videos and nearly 8,000 images of child pornography in exchange for some underwear he was told belonged to the undercover officer's niece, the plea agreement said. Feder had earlier agreed give the materials to the undercover agent in order to coordinate a meeting where Feder could molest the agent's 8-year-old niece and 10-year-old nephew, who did not actually exist, according to copies of their correspondence.

During the same meeting, Feder advised the undercover officer on how to avoid law enforcement detection, how to find child pornography on the Dark Web and how to find a website with tips for molesting children and a 475-page document called "The Pedophile's Handbook."

In the correspondence, Feder described watching and fantasizing about children at the Skokie grocery store where he worked. He was arrested as he left the coffee shop.

Investigators had determined his phone number from the email address Feder was using and deduced that he was working at a grocery store with both a deli and a barbecue, according to the affidavit form the DHS agent. Feder had told the undercover agent his name was "Ron," and during surveillance of a grocery store where they suspected he worked, found him working in the BBQ section of the store.

As part of a plea deal agreed in February, prosecutors agreed to drop some of the charges and recommended a sentence below federal guidelines, in part, due to his cooperation with authorities, according to court filings. The crimes he admitted carry a sentence of anywhere from five to 40 years in prison.

Eugene Steingold, Feder's court-appointed defense attorney, said Feder helped the government investigate multiple other people for crimes of child exploitation, "several of whom the government may not have been able to prosecute if not for Feder's assistance." Feder testified before a grand jury and allowed law enforcement to assume his online identity.

Feder had never been sexually active and had never engaged in any physical molestation, Steingold said. As a child, he had been sexually abused by his "unstable and abusive" father, according to his attorney's sentencing memo. His parents divorced when he was 16, his mother remarried, and his stepfather is a convicted sex offender, Steingold noted.

Feder was also diagnosed with ADHD as a child and "heavily medicated while in school." He does "not know what his triggers are" and was hopeful that sex offender treatment could teach him more about his behavior to "prevent it from happening again," according to his attorney.

In June, Feder sought to replace Steingold as his attorney, saying his appointed lawyer had been "vacant from the case for over six weeks" and his withdrawal — "on the grounds of the lack of communication and obvious indifferences to the facts" — would allow for due process. Feder said he understood "the health conditions and sympathizes as [he] also suffers from psychiatric disabilities."

U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly rejected the motion.

Federal authorities ask anyone who may be a victim of sexual exploitation to contact the 24-hour hotline operated by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 800-843-5678.

Earlier: Child Porn Charges For Skokie Man Out On Bond For Child Porn