ILLINOIS Online Child Predators 2011: “funson999” aka Michael Wayne Bailey sentenced to 97 Months in Prison

US District Attorney S.R. Wiggington

On March 12th, 2012, Michael Wayne Bailey, 35, of Granite City, Illinois, was sentenced to a total of 97 months imprisonment charging him with possession of child pornography (count one) and receipt of child pornography (count two), the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, Stephen R. Wigginton, announced. The sentence consists of 97 months’ imprisonment on counts one and two, to run concurrently.

Michael Wayne Bailey

Bailey was also ordered to serve 20 years’ of supervised release on counts one and two, to run concurrently; fined 300 USD on each count, for a total fine of 600 USD; and ordered to pay an additional 200 USD special assessment. Bailey pled guilty to the two-count indictment on September 23rd, 2011 and has been detained since his arraignment on July 26th, 2011.

The violation referenced in count one of the indictment occurred on March 17th, 2011, when officers were executing a state search warrant and seized eight PCs with numerous other media devices from the residence which Bailey shared with other individuals. While profiling the data on the computers, officers located a screen name, “funson999,” which contained numerous chats, discussing the molestation of children and trading images of minors. Officers were able to track the funson999 account to Michael Bailey.

Bailey then admitted creating the funson999 account, stating that he would save images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct to his hard drive and then delete them. Bailey also stated he received approximately 10 images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct via the Web. Additionally he also admitted engaging in the chats recovered from his computer. Finally, Bailey stated that he deleted e-mails and other information associated to the funson999 account after the initial search warrant was executed.

The violation referenced in count two of the indictment occurred on October 2, 2009, when Bailey downloaded an image of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct. The case was investigated by the Madison County Sheriff’s Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Metro East Cyber Crimes and Analysis Task Force. The case itself was assigned to Assistant United States Attorney Angela Scott.