PEORIA, Ill. – An Antioch, Illinois, man, Carl T. Zwanzig, 56, of the 27000 block of W. Grass Lake Road, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge James Shadid to 147 Months for Attempted Transfer of Obscene Matter to a Minor (Count 1 of the Indictment), and Penalty for Registered Sex Offender (Count 3).
At the February 10, 2022 sentencing hearing, the government presented evidence that Zwanzig communicated online with a person he believed to be a 15-year-old girl. In discussing meeting with the girl for sex, Zwanzig sent a video of himself masturbating. At the time, he was required to register as a sex offender based on a previous conviction for the Illinois offense of Grooming.
Zwanzig was indicted by the federal grand jury on December 17, 2019, and pleaded guilty to Counts 1 and 3 of the indictment in federal court on October 14, 2021.
The statutory penalties for the sentences of imprisonment on each count to which the defendant pleaded guilty must be ordered to be served consecutively (in addition to each other). Consequently, the maximum possible sentence which could be imposed on the combined counts was not more than 20 years in prison, not more than a $500,000 fine, not more than a lifetime of supervised release and a $5,200 mandatory special assessment. Zwanzig will be required to register as a sex offender and keep the registration current under the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Springfield Division-Peoria Resident Agency investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Keith Hollingshead-Cook and Paul B. Morris represented the government in the prosecution.
The case against Zwanzig 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