Tag: child porn

Come on, Daily Herald. You can do better.

When I think of local papers who don’t care about actually “reporting” local court news but would rather cut-and-paste from State’s Attorney press releases, I don’t normally think of the Daily Herald.  They’re doing everything they can to change that, though.  When catching up on my local crime news today, I first came across this article about a man in Geneva who, the paper says, admit to some fairly serious sex crimes and underage porn charges:

The Daily Herald article:

A Geneva man admitted Friday to videotaping sexual acts between him and a minor during a six-month period starting in late 2012.

Robert R. Schamne, 23, of the 1000 block of Manchester Course, pleaded guilty to child pornography and criminal sexual assault, according to the Kane County state’s attorney’s office.

Judge John A. Barsanti accepted the plea.

Schamne, who must register for life as a sex offender, faces up to 45 years in prison. His next court date is Nov. 14, but it is not known if he will be sentenced then.

Schamne videotaped sexual acts between himself and the victim between November 2012 and April 2013, according to the state’s attorney.

Schamne remains in Kane County jail on $300,000 bail.

 

The Kane County Prosecutor’s press release:

Continue reading “Come on, Daily Herald. You can do better.”

Bull Valley, Child Pornography, and the NSA.

I’m amused sometimes when I read about crime in Bull Valley.  Not because it’s funny.  More so because everybody thinks of Bull Valley as a pristine, perfect place.  Arrests in Bull Valley should serve as proof to the world of what those of us in Criminal Defense work already know: crime can pop up anywhere.  Today the Northwest Herald is reporting of an arrest for child pornography in Bull Valley:

Bull Valley man charged with child porn

By CHELSEA McDOUGALL – cmcdougall@shawmedia.com
WOODSTOCK – A Bull Valley man facing child pornography charges in Topeka, Kan., was arrested Thursday in Woodstock on an additional seven felonies.
[Name redacted by myself] allegedly had more than 1,000 images on various electronic devices of children engaged in sex acts, Woodstock Police said.
Thursday’s arrest was the end of a 10-month investigation by the Woodstock Police Department, who were notified in January that there might be some illegal pornographic downloads in the area…

Here’s another thing that amuses me: when the police use the passive voice.  They did that here.  The Woodstock Police Department “were notified” about illegal downloads.

Wonder who did the notifying?

My first guess is the feds.  As I’m sure you know by now, they have the ability to watch everything we’re doing on the internet.  Even before it was that pervasive, though, the feds were all over this internet child porn thing.  I’ve had cases in the past where they notice a download of material that shouldn’t be downloaded and either start their own investigation or assist the local police in getting the investigation going. Sometimes they’ll bust somebody on one end of an illegal transaction, get that person to cooperate in further investigation, and then extend the investigation out to other people and jurisdictions.

Is that what happened here? I don’t know. The police are clearly trying to protect the identity of whoever provided them the information, though.