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URBANA, Ill. (WCIA) — A former Champaign entertainment producer will be spending the next 20 years behind bars after he was found guilty of a child sex crime. This comes after eight of his nine charges were dropped as part of a plea deal earlier this year.
29-year-old Dante J. Scott was initially arrested on Sept. 9, 2024, for selling child pornography after Illinois State Police received multiple cyber tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The following day, he was arraigned on eight child pornography charges, all of which are Class X felonies.
Scott was known as “DJ Slim” and worked on the Beat program during the summer of 2024 as an entertainment manager. He previously worked for the Champaign Public Library but stopped working there in March 2024.
On Sept. 12, 2024, Scott received an additional charge of grooming, bringing the total number of child pornography related charges to nine. This came after Champaign County State’s Attorney Julia Rietz told WCIA that authorities found sexually explicit messages between Scott and an 11-year-old over the course of a week and a half in Nov. 2023.
In this conversation, he solicited the child and attempted to lure the child into sending naked photos of themselves. On Sept. 12, 2024, Scott pleaded not guilty to all counts and requested a trial by jury.
On April 3, 2025, Scott pleaded guilty to one count of child pornography/reproducing images involving a child under 13 as a part of a plea deal in which the other eight child sex crime charges he was facing were dismissed. Two other cases, involving driving on a suspended license amongst other things, were also dismissed as a part of the plea deal.
In this plea deal, the State agreed to cap its sentencing recommendation at 20 years, which is the sentence Scott ultimately received.
On Monday, Scott was sentenced to 20 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections and received credit for 344 days already served. He was also ordered to submit DNA samples and fined a total of $2,139.
WCIA reached out to the Champaign County State’s Attorney’s Office for more information but has not heard back yet.
