Chicago man, Michael Porter, sentenced to 22 years in prison for filming nude boys at YMCAs
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A Chicago man has been sentenced to 22 years in federal prison after admitting to surreptitiously recording nude boys in local YMCA locker rooms.
The sentence for Michael Porter, 58, was announced Friday by Acting U.S. Attorney Morris Pasqual and Robert W. "Wes" Wheeler, Jr., Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI.
For nearly 20 years, Porter surreptitiously took video recordings of naked boys in the locker rooms of three YMCAs where he was a member. The three YMCAs were the South Side YMCA, at 6330 S. Stony Island Ave. in the Woodlawn neighborhood; the High Ridge YMCA, at 2424 W. Touhy Ave. in the West Rogers Park neighborhood, and the Leaning Tower YMCA, at 6300 W. Touhy Ave. in north suburban Niles.
The High Ridge and Leaning Tower YMCAs have since closed permanently. But the allegations go back decades; the YMCA said last year that Porter visited the Y locations until March 2020 when YMCA facilities had to close due to COVID-19.
Porter's modus operandi was to place a video recording device in a bag and then put the bag on the floor, the U.S. Attorney's office said.
Porter also sexually abused at least one of the boys and captured the abuse on video, prosecutors said. The Y said previously that Porter touched boys inappropriately in locker rooms on two known occasions at one or more Y facilities.
During the investigation, law enforcement seized six recording devices, seven cameras, 30 USB drives, hundreds of cassette tapes and DVDs, and two laptops, prosecutors said. Porter possessed a total of 46,543 images and 44,533 videos depicting child pornography – including about 2,245 videos he produced himself, prosecutors said.
Porter, 58, pleaded guilty to federal charges of production, receipt, and possession of child pornography. U.S. District Judge Sara L. Ellis sentenced him on Thursday, and also ordered him to pay $63,500 in restitution to victims.
"Michael Porter was a prolific manufacturer and collector of child pornography," Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kristen Totten and Elly M. Peirson said in the government's sentencing memorandum, as reproduced in a news release. "Regardless of whether these images will ever surface again, the victims will live with the trauma imposed upon them by the defendant for the rest of their lives."
The FBI previously said there may be over 100 victims ranging in ages from 5 to 17 captured on recordings over 14 years – from 2006 until 2020.
The Y checks all its members' names and information against the National Sex Offender Database, and no red flags were found before the federal criminal case was filed against Porter in 2021, the Y said last year.
Anyone who believes they have been a victim of sexual exploitation is urged to contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, by going to www.missingkids.com, or by calling (800) 843-5678. The service is available 24 hours a day and seven days a week.
