Chicago–(ENEWSPF)–April 4, 2013. A Waukegan man is in custody on $50,000 bond after being charged with multiple counts of child pornography as part of Operation Glass House, a statewide initiative Attorney General Lisa Madigan launched to apprehend the most active offenders who download and trade child pornography online.
Rudolph Giovanny Dalpiaz-Cruz, 27, is charged with three counts of possession of child pornography, a Class 2 felony punishable by three to seven years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. He is being held in the Lake County Jail following a bond court hearing today.
“Child pornography is an unspeakable crime that has very real consequences. Every time an image of an infant or toddler being raped is viewed, it perpetuates the initial crime, further scaring these young, innocent victims,” Madigan said. “My office will continue to be relentless in targeting these offenders.”
Madigan’s investigators, with the assistance of Waukegan Police and the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office, conducted a search yesterday of Dalpiaz-Cruz’s residence in the 1300 block of Golf Road in Waukegan where he was arrested after evidence of alleged child pornography was located. Lake County State’s Attorney Michael Nerheim’s office will prosecute the case.
“Child pornography has many victims. We will continue to proudly work with Attorney General Madigan’s office in a joint effort to aggressively seek out and prosecute these cases,” said Nerheim.
“We are grateful to the Illinois Attorney General’s office for using its resources to track down this predator,” Police Chief Daniel Greathouse said.
The public is reminded that the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty by a court of law.
This is the 41st arrest since Madigan launched Operation Glass House in August 2010 to investigate the most active child pornography traders in Illinois. In the first year of Operation Glass House, Madigan’s investigations revealed a disturbing trend of offenders trading extremely violent videos of young children being raped. As a result, Operation Glass House has focused on apprehending offenders who are seen trading and watching extremely violent videos involving children, including infants and toddlers.
Madigan’s office, with a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, runs the Illinois Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force, which investigates child exploitation crimes and trains law enforcement agencies. Since 2006, Madigan’s ICAC task force has been involved in 541 arrests of sexual predators. The task force has also provided Internet safety training and education to more than 277,000 parents, teachers and students and 16,156 law enforcement professionals. Currently, 182 agencies are affiliated with the Illinois ICAC.
Source: illinoisattorneygeneral.gov
