What is a Child Pornography Charge in Chicago?
A felony offense under Illinois law, child pornography involves possessing sexual images or videos of minors (children under 18). Physical contact is not required with a child; simply possessing these types of digital files can trigger charges.
Usually a Class 1 felony offense in Illinois, child pornography charges can escalate to Class X felonies if distribution or production were allegedly involved. Additionally, these cases can also be tried in federal court if material crossed state lines or distribution was on a large-scale.
Facing child pornography charges in Chicago? For the criminal defense you can count on, speak to our experienced Chicago child pornography lawyers today at (314) 900-HELP.
How Do Child Pornography Cases Begin in Chicago?
You could be facing child pornography charges in Chicago if you allegedly:
- Possessed illegal images or videos of minors
- Downloaded, saved or viewed these types of materials on a device
- Shared, distributed or uploaded images to others or online
- Created or produced these types of materials
- Solicited or requested sexual images from a minor
Law enforcement can inaccurately interpret your alleged digital activities. Nevertheless, the presence of these files on your devices or your alleged online activity alone does not establish intent, knowledge or control, which will have to be proven by the state in your case.
Can You Be Charged Without Intent in a Chicago Child Pornography Case?
Prosecutors will have to connect the material found on a device to you knowingly controlling that device (known as “knowing possession”) and intending for the illegal activity to take place.
Because many individuals within a household can access a device, investigators may look for the presence of the following to establish “knowing possession”:
- Your log-in credentials were used
- You exclusively own and use the device in question
- You intentionally opened, saved, organized or searched for the files
- Your file names, folders or timestamps show deliberate access
Additionally, law enforcement will use forensic analysis to determine these factors, accessing things such as your browser history, the search terms that were entered, your logs, cache and meta data or cloud accounts.
Our defense team can point out that multiple users have access to the device in question, it can’t be proven who downloaded/viewed the material, your accounts were compromised, resulting in unauthorized access, or that there isn’t any evidence to prove that you intentionally searched or viewed the files.
What Digital Evidence is Used in a Chicago Child Pornography Case?
Common digital evidence in a Chicago child pornography case includes:
- Your Computer / Tablet / Phone Activity: Your IP addresses tied to downloads or uploads, user accounts on a device, activity logs showing when you were active, password protected access tied only to you.
- Your Online Activity: Router and network logs, download and browsing history or messages from apps, emails and attachments.
- Your Cloud Accounts: This includes your Google drive, iCloud, Dropbox and any backups that contain images or files.
Specifically, investigators may look at the actual image/video files, the file names and folders, the meta data and whether the files were renamed, moved or organized. This establishes whether files were simply present or intentionally handled.
Even if files were deleted, forensic experts can often recover deleted files, preview images, system logs or evidence of a file-sharing software. The state will build a timeline from here showing when files were accessed, which user was active at the time, and whether this activity reveals a pattern of illegal activities.
How Illegal Searches and Constitutional Violations can Occur in Chicago Child Pornography Cases
Because much of the evidence in these cases come from searches of devices and online accounts, your Fourth Amendment rights may have been violated in the search/seizure.
These are common examples of how your constitutional rights may have been violated:
- Law enforcement accessed your devices without a warrant
- Law enforcement accessed your devices with a warrant that lacked probable cause
- Law enforcement accessed your devices / seized evidence that exceeded the scope of the warrant
- Law enforcement didn’t follow proper forensic procedures (improper handling of devices, mishandling of digital evidence, failure to follow protocols, contamination of or misattribution of files)
- Law enforcement didn’t obtain your consent or your consent was not truly voluntary
- Law enforcement didn’t read you your Miranda Rights (your right to remain silent and obtained coerced or involuntary statements)
If your rights were violated in any way, during the course of the child pornography investigation, we can file a motion to suppress evidence. Often, when key evidence is suppressed, the prosecution no longer has a strong case to build upon.
Penalties for Child Pornography in Chicago
Most child pornography charges in Illinois, especially those involving possession, are a Class 1 felony offense. Depending on what felony offense you are charged with, you can expect to face the following penalties:
- For Most Possession Cases: A Class 1 felony, this comes with a prison sentence of 4-15 years and fines can be imposed up to $100,000.
- For Some Possession Cases: Depending on the type of possession charge and the age of the victim(s), you could be charged with a Class 2 felony, which comes with 3-7 years in prison.
- For Creation/Distribution Cases: These can range from Class 1 felony offenses to Class X felony offenses. While Class 1 felonies involve prison sentences of 4-15 years, Class X felonies are subject to 6-30 year sentences. Fines for these offenses can range between $1,000-$100,000.
- For Aggravated Cases: If your case involves a child under 13 or other aggravating factors, you could be charged with a Class X felony which comes with 9-30 years in prison and a fine up to $100,000.
In addition to these penalties, you will also be facing registration as a sex offender. With this conviction upon your criminal record, it will be difficult to obtain housing, employment, education and to get or keep a professional license. You can also face internet and device use restrictions and supervised release after your sentence. If your case is charged in federal court, you can expect harsher consequences than state penalties.
Defense Strategies in Chicago Child Pornography Cases
When you turn to Combs Waterkotte for proven legal defense services, we will do all that we can to poke holes in the prosecution’s arguments and to identify the strongest defenses that can be applied to your case.
Defense strategies we may be able to use include:
- No knowing possession occurred
- Someone else accessed the files
- There was no intent to distribute the files or to solicit a minor
- Unlawful evidence collection occurred (illegal search or seizure or improper forensic protocols)
- Your Miranda Rights were violated (and your statements were involuntary or coerced)
- The government entrapped you, inducing conduct you were not predisposed to commit
Regardless of the details surrounding your case, we won’t stop until we have done all that we can to protect your rights and uphold your reputation.
