McHenry County Blog

I found this press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Springfield of interest because of similar charges that have been filed against former McHenry County Sheriff’s Sgt. Greg Pyle:

FORMER STATE CORRECTIONS OFFICER PLEADS GUILTY TO CHILD PORNOGRAPHY OFFENSES

One of the men in blue at the Graham Correctional Center is off to Federal prison.

Springfield, Ill. – A former Illinois prison guard, Steven L. Carson, of Hillsboro, Ill., has entered pleas of guilty to charges that he sexually exploited a minor, and that he distributed and possessed images of child pornography.

Carson, 46, appeared in federal court in Springfield on Feb. 21, 2013, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Byron Cudmore. Sentencing has been scheduled before U.S. District Judge Richard Mills on June 21, 2013.

Carson has remained in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service since his arrest in August 2012, when he was charged with distribution of child pornography in a federal criminal complaint.

According to the affidavit filed in support of the complaint, the Sacramento, Ca. division of the FBI’s Cyber Crime Unit was conducting an undercover investigation of peer-to-peer file-sharing accounts in April 2012, when an undercover agent conducted a file sharing session with Carson. At the time, Carson was employed as a prison guard at Graham Correctional Center.

Carson was indicted by a grand jury, and on Feb. 21, 2013, pled guilty to three counts:

• sexual exploitation of a minor
• distribution of child pornography;\
• possession of child pornography

In court documents and during the court hearing, Carson admitted that in January 2000, he used a child to perform sexually explicit conduct which he videotaped.

Further, Carson admitted that he engaged in peer-to-peer file sharing of child pornography, including prepubescent boys; and that he possessed images of child pornography, including more than 2,300 images and 40 videos which agents recovered from Carson’s computers. Carson also agreed to forfeiture of computers and related electronic equipment.

The statutory penalty for sexual exploitation of a minor is a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison to 20 years in prison.

For distribution of child pornography, the penalty is a mandatory minimum of five years to 10 years in prison; for possession of child pornography, the penalty is up to 10 years in prison.

The defendant may also be ordered to remain on supervised release for a term up to life.

The charges are the result of an investigation by the FBI. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Gregory K. Harris and Bryan D. Freres.

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 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

McHenry County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Gregory Pyle

For those into seeing the reasons that Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Wesley Tagtmeyer swore out a complaint against Gregory Pyle before Magistrate P. Michael Mahoney, you’ll find it below.  If you would like to read other McHenry County Blog articles about McHenry County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Pyle, you can find them here.

A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office:

TWO MEN CHARGED IN SEPARATE FEDERAL CHILD PORNOGRAPHY INDICTMENTS

Rockford – Two men were indicted today by a federal grand jury for allegedly transporting and possessing child pornography.

Jason Nicoson, 34, of Roscoe, I11., and John Carlson, 37, of Algonquin, Ill., were each charged in separate cases with two counts of transporting child pornography via the internet, and one count of possessing child pornography that had crossed state

If convicted, each defendant faces a maximum potential sentence on each count of up to 10 years in prison, 3 years of supervised release following imprisonment, and a tine of up to $250,000.

If convicted, the actual sentence will be determined by a United States District Court Judge, guided by the United States Sentencing Guidelines.

The indictments were announced today by Gary S. Shapiro, Acting United States Attorney

for the Northern District of Illinois. and Robelt D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago

Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Algonquin Police Department, Illinois State Police, and the Illinois Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce assisted in the investigations.

The government is represented in each case by Assistant United States Attorney Michael D. Love.

The publie is renlinded that an indictment contains only charges and is not evidence of guilt.

Each defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burdell of provjllg guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

John Beauchaine

Algonquin’s John Beauchaine was indicted today for failure to register as a sex offender.

He lives at 1955 Farmhill and was arrested by Algonquin Police.

He’s fifty-one years old.

Beauchaine is listed as a “sexual predator.”

If I read the page on the Illinois Sexual Offender Information page correctly, his crime was child pornography.

Sex offenders registered in Algonquin, Illinois

A press release from the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office:

CHILD PORNOGRAPHER MICHAEL HARTMAN SENTENCED TO FIVE YEARS IN THE ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS

Louis A. Bianchi, McHenry County State’s Attorney, announces that thirty-four year old Michael Hartman of Marengo, was sentenced today to five years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for the class 3 felony offense of Unlawful Possession of Child Pornography following a sentencing hearing.

The Marengo Police Department found the child pornography on the defendant’s computer which was located in the defendant’s residence.

This was the defendant’s third arrest for the offense of Child Pornography. The two prior offenses occurred in Kane County in 2004 and the defendant was previously sentenced to three years in the Department of Corrections for the second of those offenses.

This case was investigated by Det. Brian Christian of the Marengo Police Department.

This case was prosecuted for the State by Assistant State’s Attorney Ryan Blackney.

McHenry County Courthouse

The following press release has been received from McHenry County government:

McHenry County Selected as Child Protection Data Courts Project Pilot Site

WOODSTOCK, IL – McHenry County has been selected by the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts (AOIC), as a pilot site for the launch of a Court Improvement Program initiative that will focus on developing and implementing a statewide, uniform data collection and case tracking structure, to capture specific information related to child abuse and neglect court cases.

McHenry County is one of five counties in Illinois that will collaborate with the AOIC and the National Center for State Courts in a three-year Child Protection Data Courts Project.  The purpose of the AOIC Child Protection Data Courts Project is to establish a court-based mechanism to assess child protection court performance measures and enable local courts to improve efficiency and effectiveness in ensuring safety, permanency, due process, and timeliness in child protection cases, and improve outcomes for children and families.

The Federal Court Improvement Program (CIP) provides funding to the highest state courts to develop and/or enhance court data systems to improve the tracking of the safety, and timeliness of permanency decisions for children.  CIP funds are awarded annually by the Children’s Bureau, the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Here’s a press release that just arrived from the U.S. Attorney’s Office:

McHENRY COUNTY MAN SENTENCED TO 280 MONTHS IN PRISON FOR ENTICING 13-YEAR-OLD GIRL TO ENGAGE IN SEXUAL ACTIVITY

CHICAGO – A McHenry County man was sentenced to more than 23 years in prison for enticing a 13-year-old girl to engage in sexual activity after he lured her to meet him at a park in Carol Stream in 2007, federal law enforcement officials announced today.

Marcus Tyms, 25, formerly of Union, Ill., was sentenced to 280 months in federal prison, with 10 years of that sentence being imposed because Tyms was a registered sex-offender when he committed the crime.

Tyms was sentenced July 2 by U.S. District Judge Milton Shadur in Federal Court in Chicago, said Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

According to court documents, in September 2007, just hours after he re-registered as a sex-offender for a 2005 conviction for indecent solicitation of a child, Tyms was arrested after he met the victim at a park intending to have sex, hit her when she had last-minute doubts, and abandoned her when observed by Carol Stream police who arrested him.

Tyms had met the victim on an online chat service and was in contact with her for approximately three months leading up to their meeting and his arrest, and he had induced her to exchange sexually explicit photographs in the days just before then.

Tyms was indicted in July 2008 for producing child pornography and transferring obscene matter to a minor, in addition to the enticement count, to which he pleaded guilty last December. Judge Shadur

• sentenced Tyms to 160 months on the enticement count and
• imposed a mandatory consecutive 10-year prison term for committing the crime while being a registered sex-offender.
• He also imposed five years of supervised release and a $10,000 fine.

The case was investigated by the Carol Stream Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office, which initially brought charges, later referred the case to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for federal prosecution.

The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stephen Lee and Julie Ruder.