Sex offender pleads guilty to failing to report online IDs

Chad Amodio, 52, pleaded guilty in federal court to failing to register as a sex offender, according to a press statement from U.S. Attorney Jane E. Young Wednesday.

Amodio, of Alton, pleaded guilty to three counts of failing to comply with sex offender registration requirements, specifically failing to register his “online identifiers.” His sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 24, 2025, in U.S. District Court. 

Amodio has a past federal conviction for traveling across state lines to engage in illegal sexual conduct, according to the press statement. Because of that conviction, Amodio is required to register as a sex offender and to report any online or internet identifiers, among other requirements, on his sex offender registration paperwork. These could include screen names and user profiles on social media websites.

Between December 2023 and January 2024, Amodio was apparently operating an unregistered screen name in an internet chat room for teenagers. In that chat room, Amodio entered into communications with an undercover law enforcement officer posing as a 13-year-old girl. Amodio is accused of exchanging hundreds of sexual messages with the undercover officer, who he believed was a teen. 

Amodio requested photographs of the purported minor and suggested they meet each other in person, offering to pick up the undercover officer from school so they could engage in illegal sexual activity. After identifying Amodio, officers discovered the existence of two other online identifiers Amodio failed to report to authorities. 

Amodio could receive a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, at least five years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. His sentence will be imposed by a U.S. District Court judge based on U.S. sentencing guidelines and statutes. 

The investigation, led by the U.S. Marshals service, received assistance from Homeland Security Investigations, the Haverhill Massachusetts Police Department and the Alton Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kasey Weiland and Matthew Hunter are prosecuting the case. 

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information, visit justice.gov/psc.