24-Year-Old Allegedly Trading 600+ Videos, Images Online
Chicago, IL-(ENEWSPF)- Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced on November 2 that the arrest of a La Salle County man on child pornography charges marks the 27th arrest in “Operation Glass House,” her continuing crackdown on the most active traffickers downloading and trading child pornography on the Internet.
Ryan Theurer, 24, of Leland, was charged today with three counts of Aggravated Child Pornography, Class 2 felonies punishable by a three- to seven-year prison term in the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) and three counts of Child Pornography, a Class 3 felony punishable by two to five years in IDOC. Leland police arrested Theurer early today, and he was transported to the La Salle County Jail. He will appear in bond court on Thursday.
“Offenders who trade and download child pornography may think that they’re committing this crime behind closed doors,” Madigan said. “But in reality, they’re living in a ‘glass house.’ We can track them online committing these heinous acts, and we can find them and put them behind bars where they belong.”
Investigators with the Attorney General’s office coordinated the arrest with the Genoa Police Department, Leland police and the La Salle County State’s Attorney. Earlier this year, Genoa police investigators pinpointed an IP address to a location on Feather Lane in Leland, where Theurer was taken into custody today. The initial investigation indicates Theurer allegedly offered more than 600 images and videos of child pornography for trade online, some as recent as Tuesday, and some allegedly containing children as young as 5 years old.
“I am pleased with the efforts of law enforcement, including the Attorney General, to aggressively track down online predators,” said La Salle County State’s Attorney Brian Towne. “It benefits the community when all representative agencies work together to seek justice.”
In August 2010, Attorney General Madigan announced Operation Glass House, an initiative to find and arrest the worst child pornographers in Illinois. Investigators use the unique identifier that each computer is assigned when it accesses the Internet, known as an Internet protocol (IP) address. In the last 60 days, more than 3,200 Illinois IP addresses were seen trading child pornography images and videos across the state by Attorney General’s Office investigators.
Madigan’s office, with a grant from the Department of Justice, runs the Illinois Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force, which investigates child exploitation crimes and trains law enforcement. Since 2006, Madigan’s ICAC task force has been involved in 392 arrests of sexual predators and provided Internet safety training and education to more than 176,800 parents, teachers and students and more than 13,400 law enforcement professionals.
The public is reminded that the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty by a court of law.
