PHOTO COURTESY ATHENS POLICE DEPARTMENT
Adam L. Energy was sentenced to 60 years in federal jail after pleading responsible to 34 counts of manufacturing, receiving and possessing youngster pornography.
Adam Energy averted prison prices for 5 years after Springfield police investigated him for alleged inappropriate on-line feedback and textual content messages with minors he met in Springfield Theatre Centre packages and productions.
However since 2018, Energy, a Petersburg resident and former Springfield-area substitute instructor, choir director and neighborhood theater director, used lies and greater than a dozen on-line accounts in a relentless pursuit to influence at the very least 24 boys – a few of them from the realm – to supply youngster pornography pictures and movies of themselves.
“This was a focused assault on a whole neighborhood of kids,” Assistant U.S. Legal professional Tanner Jacobs stated March 13 in Springfield’s U.S. District Courtroom earlier than Energy, 32, was sentenced to 60 years in jail after pleading responsible to 34 counts of manufacturing, receiving and possessing youngster pornography.
Even with good conduct, Energy nonetheless must serve at the very least 87.5% of the sentence, or greater than 52 years, and could be in his 80s when launched.
Energy pleaded responsible Could 3, 2024. He stated throughout that listening to that he was sorry for inflicting “an immense quantity of ache. … I’ve brought on unspeakable hurt to so many individuals.”
He added, “I’m extraordinarily ashamed by my deplorable actions.”
A number of individuals within the courtroom viewers, which included households affected by Energy’s conduct, sobbed throughout descriptions of Energy’s actions and stated they agreed with the prosecution’s request for a 100-year jail sentence.
“There isn’t any different simply punishment,” Jacobs stated.
Energy was initially arrested in March 2023 and charged in Menard County Circuit Courtroom however has been in federal custody since June 2023 after federal prosecutors took over the case.
Energy requested District Decide Colleen Lawless for leniency – a sentence of 15 years – due to his potential for rehabilitation.
Energy, a 2012 graduate of Petersburg PORTA Excessive Faculty, famous that he earned an internet bachelor’s diploma in music from Judson Faculty in Marion, Alabama.
“I’ve devoted my life to the service of others,” stated Energy, who wore a striped jail jumpsuit, spoke calmly and confirmed little emotion throughout the listening to.
“I’ve a robust work ethic,” Energy informed the decide. “I used to be a perfectionist.”
Energy stated he was bullied for a lot of his childhood due to his weight and lack of athleticism, and was traumatized by frequent digital rectal examinations for a medical situation when he was 10 or 11. He stated he tried suicide with ache remedy in 2019.
Energy stated his appearing out on-line helped him cope with melancholy.
“I may faux to be somebody I wasn’t,” he stated. “I knew it was incorrect … however I couldn’t stop.”
Energy’s lawyer, Mark Wykoff of Springfield, informed the decide, “The bullied turned the bully himself.”
The decide wasn’t persuaded.
“There isn’t any doubt that that is actually a heinous crime,” Lawless stated.
She informed Energy that he harnessed his perfectionism and work ethic, together with 9 completely different digital gadgets, together with iPads and iPhones, to “prey on youngsters you already know and taught.
“It’s onerous for me to think about that redeeming,” Lawless stated.
Energy’s lawyer famous that there was no bodily contact between Energy and his victims. Nevertheless, the decide informed Energy, “Belief was abused right here. You had been methodical.”
Primarily based on enhancements involving the usage of digital gadgets within the youngster porn crimes, Jacobs stated federal sentencing pointers justified a sentence of as much as 740 years.
Jacobs stated Energy destroyed the innocence of boys whose ages ranged from 8 to 16. Energy used phrases and images on-line to painting himself as a feminine to get the boys to belief him, he stated. Energy informed the boys learn how to place themself in pictures and what to say, asking them to moan and masturbate, Jacobs stated.
“It was overwhelmingly clear that he loved manipulating younger boys into surrendering their most harmless moments,” Jacobs stated.
By sharing lots of the pictures he acquired from his victims on-line, Energy ensured that these pictures may very well be obtainable on the web for years to return, Jacobs stated.
“It’s clear that these households nonetheless harm as we speak,” Jacobs stated. “He took from these youngsters their sense of safety.”
Jacobs learn a letter from one sufferer’s mom who stated Powers was “the monster who stole from my household. 100 years isn’t sufficient.”
Energy beforehand was employed at Our Savior Catholic Faculty and Routt Catholic Faculty, each in Jacksonville, and labored instead instructor at PORTA. He was a choir director at Central Christian Church in Jacksonville and labored at Nelson Oil.
Kari Bedford of Springfield and her ex-husband, Johnny Molson of Chicago, complained publicly in 2023 that Invoice Bauser Jr., a former member of the board of Springfield Municipal Opera, didn’t do sufficient in 2018 and 2019 to guard youngsters from inappropriate on-line and textual content messages from Energy.
PHOTO FROM FACEBOOK
Invoice Bauser Jr.
Bauser later resigned and was fired from his job as Rochester Group Unit Faculty District 3A’s auditorium and high-quality arts director for allegedly making “sexually suggestive” feedback to Rochester Excessive college students. Bauser by no means was charged with any crimes.
Bedford and Molson stated their daughter, now in her 20s, acquired inappropriate messages from Energy when she was a minor. Their daughter’s expertise was a part of the 2018 investigation by Springfield police and the Illinois Division of Youngsters and Household Providers, however she wasn’t one of many victims within the federal case.
Bedford and Molson had been annoyed that Energy had supporters and defenders within the native performing arts neighborhood who doubted or minimized allegations about him. Each attended the March 13 federal courtroom listening to and later stated they had been gratified by the end result.
“Many victims are nonetheless unaccounted for,” Bedford stated. “We could by no means know the total extent of Adam’s crimes. Nevertheless, the submission of a responsible plea and an appropriately prolonged sentence is the most effective we will hope for – and fairly frankly, it’s the sort of justice that almost all victims and households hardly ever ever see.
“Going ahead, it’s our want that the bravery of the youngsters concerned, and the end result of this case, is contagious sufficient to lend braveness to different victims in their very own quest for justice,” she stated.
Molson stated the decide was “swift and agency in her sentencing.”
He stated Energy and Wykoff’s statements had been “riddled with inaccuracies and so pathetic that they’d be comical had been they not so severe.”
Molson stated the case “underscores how essential it’s to take heed to youngsters and consider them. It may well’t be swept underneath the rug and hope it goes away. Pedophiles thrive within the shadows. Bringing it within the open is the one approach to struggle it.”
