 The arrest of Michael W. Brown, 28, is the latest in Madigan's
Operation Glass House, a crackdown on the state's most active
traffickers who download and trade child pornography online.Brown
was arrested and charged with two counts of reproduction of
aggravated child pornography, a Class X felony punishable by six to
30 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. He was arrested
this morning at his home and is being held in the Morgan County Jail
on a $200,000 bond.
"This arrest is one of the most significant we've made to date in
the two years since we launched Operation Glass House, and it
demonstrates how relentless we are in putting a stop to this heinous
victimization of children," Madigan said.
Investigators with Madigan's office made the arrest, working with
the Jacksonville Police Department and with the assistance of the
Morgan County state's attorney's office.
"Jacksonville police are always anxious to work with Attorney
General Madigan and our local officials to put child pornographers
on notice that we intend to protect our communities from their
sickening actions," said Chief Tony Grootens of the Jacksonville
police.
Morgan County State's Attorney Chris Reif will prosecute the
case, which remains under investigation. The public is reminded any
defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty by a court of
law.
This arrest is the 33rd of Operation Glass House, an initiative
Madigan launched in August 2010 to apprehend child pornographers in
Illinois. In the first year of Operation Glass House, Madigan's
investigations revealed a disturbing trend of offenders trading
extremely violent videos of children being raped. As part of its
second year, Operation Glass House has focused on targeting
offenders seen trading and watching these extremely violent videos
involving children as young as toddlers.
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To track child pornographers online, investigators use the unique
identifier that each computer is assigned when it accesses the
Internet, known as an Internet protocol address. In the last 120
days, 3,200 Illinois IP addresses were seen trading child
pornographic images, according to investigators in the attorney
general's office.
This ongoing initiative will benefit from a new law Madigan
helped write for the General Assembly last year. The legislation
helps investigators track offenders and requires longer sentences
when they are convicted. The law authorizes prosecutors to issue
administrative subpoenas for Internet-related child exploitation
investigations. By using administrative subpoenas, investigators can
more quickly obtain the name and address behind an IP address and
move the investigation forward, whereas before it could have taken
investigators up to 60 days to obtain this critical information, due
to infrequent grand jury meeting schedules.
Madigan's office, with a grant from the Department of Justice,
runs the Illinois Internet Crimes Against Children task force, which
investigates child exploitation crimes and trains law enforcement
agencies. Since 2006, the task force has been involved in 447
arrests of sexual predators. The task force has also provided
Internet safety training and education to nearly 244,000 parents,
teachers and students and more than 14,200 law enforcement
professionals. Currently, 171 agencies are affiliated with Illinois
Internet Crimes Against Children.
[Text from file received from the office
of
Illinois Attorney General Lisa
Madigan]
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