Madigan: Bloomington arrest in child pornography operation

[January 23, 2015]  CHICAGO — Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced charges today against a Bloomington man on multiple counts of distributing child pornography as part of “Operation Glass House,” her statewide initiative to apprehend the most active offenders who download and trade child pornography online.

Madigan’s investigators and the Bloomington Police Department arrested David R. Mariani, 30, after executing a search warrant at his residence on Wednesday on Chatsford Court. Mariani was charged in McLean County with 10 counts of distribution of child pornography, a Class X felony punishable by six to 30 years in prison. A bond hearing was set for 1 p.m. Thursday.

“These offenders perpetuate the sexual assault of children when these horrific files are spread across the internet,” Madigan said. “Their criminal acts only cause further devastation to the lives of innocent victims.”

Operation Glass House has netted a total of 74 arrests since 2010, the year when Attorney General Madigan launched the initiative 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.

Today’s operation was assisted by the Bloomington Police Department. The McLean County State’s Attorney’s Office will prosecute the case.

“This crime doesn’t recognize county or state boundaries so we appreciate the cooperative work of the Attorney General’s Office to help local government go after child predators here in McLean County or anywhere else that we may find them,” said McLean County State’s Attorney Jason Chambers.

“We are always working diligently to protect our citizens, in particular to protect our community against these atrocious crimes,” said Bloomington Police Chief Brendan Heffner.

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 893 arrests of sexual predators. The task force has also provided Internet safety training and education to more than 400,000 parents, teachers and students and more than 18,500 law enforcement professionals.

The public is reminded that the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

[The Office of Attorney General Lisa Madigan]