CHICAGO—Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced charges against a McHenry County man on multiple counts of possessing child pornography as part of “Operation Glass House,” her statewide initiative to apprehend the most active offenders who download and trade child pornography online.
Jonathon A. Morgan, 29, of Lake in the Hills, was arrested after investigators with Madigan’s office, the Lake in the Hills Police Department and the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant at his home in the 1200 block of Birch Street. Morgan was charged with three counts of possession of child pornography, a Class 2 felony punishable by three to seven years in prison. A bond hearing was scheduled for Thursday.
“Viewing and trading child pornography is not an innocent act but a terrible crime that perpetuates sexual violence against children,” Madigan said. “My office will continue to be relentless in investigating and apprehending the worst offenders who trade these horrific videos.”
This is the 67th arrest of Operation Glass House, which Madigan launched in 2010 to investigate and arrest offenders trading child pornography online. The operation’s investigations are conducted by Madigan’s High Tech Crimes Bureau and have revealed a disturbing community of criminals who are trading and viewing extremely violent videos of children as young as infants being raped and abused.
The Lake in the Hills Police Department and the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office assisted in the investigation. The McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office will prosecute the case.
“We see it as a great benefit to our residents when we can assist the Attorney General’s Office in taking these offenders off of our streets,” said Lake in the Hills Police Chief David Brey.
The McHenry County Sheriff’s Office provided the following statement: “The McHenry County Sheriff’s Office is a member of the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force in an effort to combat the criminals who view and share child pornography. The collaborative efforts of the Sheriff’s Office, the Attorney General’s Office and the Lake in the Hills Police Department is an example of how law enforcement is pooling their resources to address these offenses against children.”
In addition to Operation Glass House, Madigan leads the Illinois Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) with a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice. The Task Force investigates child exploitation crimes and trains local and county level law enforcement agencies throughout Illinois to do the same. Since 2006, Madigan’s ICAC task force has been involved in 791 arrests of sexual predators. The task force has also provided Internet safety training and education to more than 368,000 parents, teachers and students and more than 17,500 law enforcement professionals.
The public is reminded that the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.