TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Tag: illinois

  • Teens prostitued on craigslist in Chicago

    10 charged in Internet prostitution:

    Cook County Sheriff’s Department in Illinois arrested 10 members of a craigslist prostitution ring that ran in Illinois and Indiana.

    Rodney “Mook” Williams, Eddie Wells and Terrance “Big T” Greenlee Jr., all of Chicago, and Gregory Key of Evergreen Park are accused of operating the prostitution ring. If convicted, they could face up to 30 years in prison.

    Six women were charged with prostitution. The juveniles were questioned by police but released without being charged, officials said.

    Yes, you read that right, juveniles.

    The ring operated in Illinois and Indiana and involved at least 11 women, some of whom were high school freshmen and sophomores, he said.

    Two of the juveniles—one from Iowa—were runaways, officials said, adding the alleged leaders recruited some women from a strip club and found others at a currency exchange.

    There’s that ‘victimless’ crime again.

  • MySpace sex offender facing child porn charges

    Sex offender faces child porn charges:

    Carl Courtright of Granite City, Illinois was one of those registered sex offenders that had a profile on MySpace when he shouldn’t have. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan used that to obtain a search warrant to Courtright’s home.

    Police searched the house on the morning of Aug. 9 and seized several computers, hard drives, and computer equipment.

    One DVD, listed in the search warrant return, is titled “Dateline NBC to Catch a Predator.”

    Investigators with Madigan’s High Tech Crimes Bureau used IP address information obtained from MySpace to learn that Courtright had been actively trading pornographic images over the Internet.

    “Child predators who think they are safe hiding behind a computer screen are no longer anonymous,” Madigan said in a written release. “We have the technology and we are committed to using all of our resources to seek them out and hold them accountable for their crimes.”

    It’s nice to see that a state attorney general is using the information to go after criminals and not just MySpace.

  • Another Naperville pedo gets caught

    MySpace page leads to charges:

    Is there something in the water in Naperville, Illinois? This is the third or fourth predator story that I’ve posted about that has happened in Naperville. Is it the pedo holy land of the Midwest?

    Anyway, 30-year-old Anthony Kershaw, formerly of Naperville, was arrested Friday on child porn charges. Police were tipped off to “suspicious activity” on a MySpace that he created.

    A forensic examination of a computer seized from Kershaw’s former Naperville home revealed 100 images of child pornography, police said.

    That’s not a small number. Maybe they should make a law that says for every piece of child porn you get caught with you get a year in prison. 100 years for this creep sounds about right, doesn’t it?

  • John Wentworth sentenced

    MySpace sex offender gets 3½ years in prison:

    Another pioneer of the MySpace predators has been sentenced. John Wentworth of Naperville, Illinois was sentenced to only 3 1/2 years behind bars for having sexual contact with an underage teen he met on MySpace. As far as I can tell Wentworth only had internet contact with his victims. I wonder how many have not come forward since the article states he would send out 50 messages a day on MySpace.

    “This is not an isolated incident or a single offense,” Judge Perry Thompson said as he sentenced Wentworth. Wentworth was charged last year with two felonies after he met a 15-year-old Naperville girl online and then during a subsequent meeting engaged in sexual activity with her.

    “This event devastated my family,” the teen, now 16, said in court before sentencing.

    I’m sure the judge’s hands were tied with sentencing but 3 1/2 years is not enough to discourage this predator from trying again.

  • Wentworth pleads guilty

    Wentworth pleads guilty

    Naperville Man Pleads Guilty In MySpace Sex Abuse:

    John Wentworth, who I posted about here, has pleaded guilty to felony charges of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and indecent solicitation of a child.

    Unfortunately, the most he’s looking at is seven years in prison.

  • Teen prostitutes uncovered in Chicago

    Teen prostitutes uncovered in Chicago

    Women charged with offering girls for sex:

    I’ll give you 3 guesses of which website they were advertising on. I’ll give you a hint. It rhymes with gregslist.

    Cook County Sheriffs in Illinois conducted a Craigslist prostitution sting which resulted in finding prostitutes ages 14, 15 and 16-years-old. Those charged in separate incidents were Tamara Cotton, 25, who was charged with keeping a place of prostitution and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and one count of pimping and child endangerment. Christina Holt, 19, who is charged with keeping a house of prostitution. Holt’s boyfriend, Montrell Knight, 34, who was storing guns and drugs for the Gangster Disciples, was charged with nine counts of unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, armed violence, and three drug-related charges.

    The teen prostitutes themselves are not being treated as criminals, and Cook County is trying to get them help.

    So what does craigslist have to say about this?

    Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster wrote in an e-mail Thursday that illegal activity is prohibited on the site, and that the erotic services page is intended for use by “legal escort services and sensual massage providers.”

    “It was added at the request of our users, who wanted these ads separated from our general personals categories,” he wrote. “We appreciate and are fully cooperative with law enforcement efforts.”

    Legal escort services and sensual massage providers? Take it from someone who grew up in a town rife with prostitution, there is no such animal as “legal” escort services and sensual massage.

    Once again, craigslist is turning a blind eye to illegal activity on their site. They say that they’re fully cooperative with law enforcement, but it seems to me that it’s after the fact.

    Thanks to Tim for the link.

  • Jay Coffield sentenced

    Jay Coffield sentenced

    MySpace Predator Sentenced:

    I originally posted about Jay Coffield here.

    JOLIET, Ill. — A man who used the popular, youth-oriented MySpace.com Web site to arrange a sexual tryst with an underage Naperville girl has been sentenced to two years and two months in prison for that crime.

    Will County Circuit Court Judge Daniel Rozak meted out the prison term to Jay D. Coffield, 44, of Morris, state’s attorney James Glasgow confirmed Monday in a written statement.

    Coffield pleaded guilty Friday to a felony charge of indecent solicitation of a child. The allegation stemmed from his efforts earlier this year to arrange a sexual rendezvous with a 14-year-old Naperville girl.

    The girl’s 21-year-old cousin contacted Naperville police Detective Rich Wistocki on May 22, after discovering “inappropriate comments” directed at the teenager on the girl’s MySpace page, Glasgow said.

    “Taking a page from the online watchdog group Perverted Justice, this amateur sleuth set up her own undercover account online and began talking to Coffield online,” Glasgow said of the girl’s cousin.

    She then turned her account and other information over to Wistocki, the Naperville Police Department’s Internet Crimes Unit investigator, Glasgow said.

    Wistocki, posing as the teenager, continued corresponding with Coffield, who used the MySpace screen name of Mistercee42.

    Coffield ultimately suggested the girl meet him the evening of June 9 in a coffee shop near 95th Street and Route 59 on Naperville’s far southwest side. He indicated he would then take her to DuPage River Park, near Royce Road and Naper Boulevard on the city’s far southeast side, where they would have sex, police said in June.

    Coffield arrived at the coffee shop around 6:15 p.m. and was arrested immediately. Coffield, who had no criminal record at the time, told police it was the first time he had tried to arrange a meeting with a girl he had chatted with over the Internet.

    “No longer an anonymous Internet surfer looking for vulnerable children, Jay Coffield now will have a public prison sentence and his face online among other Illinois registered sex offenders,” Glasgow said.

    “Instead of just picking up the pieces after a child has been violated, we were able to expose and punish a predator before a child’s life was tragically affected.”

  • Tony Pacheco and Angel Alverio

    Tony Pacheco and Angel Alverio

    Yesterday I talked about the 14-year-old Chicago girl who was raped by two guys she met on MySpace and that I couldn’t find their MySpaces.

    Well, you guys responded in full force. Thanks to Mr. A, Angie, Miss Kris and new tipper kello we have two profiles for Pacheco (here and here) and Angel Alverio’s MySpace which is set to private.

  • 14-year-old Chicago girl raped

    14-year-old Chicago girl raped

    Sex attack victim found on Web site:

    Three Chicago teenagers have been charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl they met through MySpace.com, a Web site popular with teens and young adults.

    Tony Pacheco, 17, and Angel Alverio, 18, were arrested Sunday along with a 15-year-old boy whose name is not being released because he is a juvenile. Pacheco, of the 6400 block of North Hamilton Avenue, and Alverio, of the 1500 block of West Wilson Avenue, were being held Monday on $400,000 bond. A Juvenile Court judge found probable cause to detain the 15-year-old, said Andy Conklin, a spokesman for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.

    Pacheco and Alverio, both students at Senn High School on the North Side, had been corresponding with the girl on MySpace.com, Assistant Cook County State’s Atty. John Henning said at the teens’ bond hearing Monday. Henning did not know how long the teens had been corresponding.

    The pair allegedly set up a meeting with the girl, who is also from Chicago, at an undisclosed location on July 24 and drove her to the home of the 15-year-old in the 4800 block of West Walton Street, Henning said. There, they allegedly drank alcohol and played video games, he said.

    “The victim passed out and when she woke up,” she was being sexually assaulted, Henning said. That pattern was repeated several times, and the last time she awoke she was in an alley, Henning said.

    I couldn’t find one for Alverio. I might have found one for Pacheco, but I can’t say for sure that it’s his, so any help would be appreciated.

  • Samson Shelton enters plea

    Samson Shelton enters plea

    Ex-Teacher Pleads Not Guilty to Attack:

    Our favorite part-time teacher, part-time pro wrestler, and full-time psycho, Samson Shelton, has appeared in court to enter his plea. This ought to be good…

    BELLEVILLE, Ill. (AP) A former teacher pleaded not guilty Friday to trying to kill a student who was found clinging to life in a park.

    Samson Shelton, 26, of Smithton, made the plea during an arraignment on one count of attempted first-degree murder which accuses him of attacking 17-year-old Ashley Reeves, the Belleville News-Democrat reported on its Web site.

    Authorities allege that Shelton choked Reeves with a belt, injured her neck and left her in a city park, where she spent about 30 hours before being found on April 29.

    Investigators have said that Reeves and Shelton had a “relationship.” They haven’t elaborated. School officials have said Shelton was once a teacher at a middle school Reeves attended.

    Shelton and his attorney, Justin Kuehn, declined comment to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. A message was left by The Associated Press at Kuehn’s office Friday evening.

    He led police to her body, luckily she was still alive, and he pleads not guilty?

    I can’t wait to hear the defense on this one.