A 33-year-old man has been sentenced to seven years in prison for secretly video-recording a young child who was unclothed in a home shower in Fox Lake.
Michael A. Buffano, 33, of Fox Lake, was charged in March 2023 with six counts of unauthorized videotaping of a minor and three counts of child pornography.
A criminal complaint filed in McHenry County Circuit Court said Buffano possessed three child pornography videos on his iCloud account.
The videos showed a juvenile, who was in her early teens, fully unclothed in a shower, the complaint said.
Buffano made and transmitted the video recordings himself by placing a device inside the victim’s bathroom, the complaint said.
The complaint also said Buffano knew the girl was a juvenile and she did not consent to it.
The recordings were taken inside a residence on Country Club Hills Drive in Fox Lake.
Prosecutors said the Fox Lake Police Department responded to a 911 call on July 30, 2022, to the home where the incident occurred.
The person who called 911 had observed one of the videos on Buffano’s cell phone.
Responding officers seized the cell phone and obtained a search warrant, which led to them locating multiple pornographic videos from the incidents.
Court records show Buffano pleaded guilty to one count of child pornography, a Class X felony, earlier this month.
In exchange, he was sentenced to seven years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.
The plea agreement was approved by McHenry County Judge Mark Gerhardt.
Buffano will be required to register as a sex offender for life. He will be on mandatory supervised release for three years to natural life following his release from prison.
McHenry County State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally said the Fox Lake Police Department and Assistant State’s Attorney Maria Marek performed “exceptional work” on the case.
“The McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office is committed to aggressively prosecuting those who dare to exploit children,” Kenneally said following sentencing.