Sonntag Gets 180 Days Jail Time In Child Porn Case

EVERGREEN PARK, IL — A Morgan Park man found guilty of possessing child pornography was sentenced Monday to 180 days in Cook County Jail and 36 months of “sex offender probation.” James Sonntag, 46, was convicted in September following a three-day bench trial before Cook County Judge Colleen Hyland in the Bridgeview Courthouse.

Sonntag was arrested in June 2016 after law enforcement officers from the Cook County Internet Crimes Against Children task force traced child pornography being downloaded to IP address in Sonntag's Morgan Park home. Prosecutors said that Sonntag viewed sexually graphic videos of young children being exploited in various sex acts. Sonntag’s attorneys argued that their client was unaware the videos were downloaded on his computer via the e-Mule file sharing network

Before the sentencing hearing began, Sonntag’s attorney Jon Neuleib motioned for a new trial, stating that prosecutors didn’t prove that Sonntag knew the child pornography videos were on his computer. Neulieb also attacked the search warrant executed by Evergreen Park police officers and other law enforcement working on the task force, asking that it be quashed.

“Law enforcement did not give a straight answer [to Sonntag] that he was being monitored,” Neulieb said.

Hyland denied the motion to quash the warrant. She also denied a motion for a new trial.

“I made a highly detailed ruling on three counts of [child pornography possession] and I stand by that ruling. Denied.”

Cmdr. Mike Fellows, of the Berwyn Police Department, and a member of ICAC in 2016, took the stand where he was repeated testimony of how he found child porn videos while conducting a forensic analysis of Sonntag’s computer the morning of his arrest on June 15, 2016.

Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Holly Grosshaus showed clips from the videos on a TV screen facing the judge’s bench. Audio could be heard in the courtroom of a child crying in a video that Grosshaus said was titled “Anal_Sex_Bondage (she’s really crying in pain).” During the playing of the videos, Sonntag closed his eyes or turned around in his chair, so he wouldn’t have to see them.

Under cross-examination, Fellows told Neulieb that he could not say when the files were moved to another folder on Sonntag’s computer, or when they were viewed.

Sontagg’s wife, Kristin, took the stand, describing how she and her husband met during high school. She said Sonntag was a busy, involved dad working four jobs, cooking dinner and “schlepping” their two children to doctor’s appointments, sports practices and other activities.

“He wasn’t a dad in the background,” Kristen Sonntag said. “He’s the best guy I ever met.”

In addition to his full time job as a systems' administrator in the IT department for Bank of America, Sonntag worked as a coach and high-end sewing machine technician. He also helped run his wife’s art studio, which served as a meeting space for the Beverly Arts Alliance. She described her husband’s “back end involvement” as a volunteer for the Beverly Art Walk.

Kristin Sonntag compared her husband’s role in the Bank of America, where he worked for 17 years up until his termination shortly after his arrest, to the TV show “24.”

Under cross-examination by co-prosecutor Kate Brossman, Kristin Sonntag described how her husband was promoted to positions of increased responsibility at Bank of America, troubleshooting issues with the bank's information technology system.

Sonntag’s wife said he was fully embraced by both sides of their extended families, many who sat in the courtroom during the sentencing.

During final arguments, Grosshaus called the videos “crime scenes.”

“They’re produced for the sexual gratification of him and others like him,” Grosshaus said. “There wouldn’t be a market for [child pornography] if it wasn’t for people like him.”

Grosshaus added that it wasn't an an accident that the child porn was f0und on Sonntag’s computer given his 17 years’ experience as IT systems administrator.

Neulieb said that while he wouldn’t diminish the horror of child pornography, his client was not involved in its production. He also described how Sonntag was sexually abused by a friend’s father when he was 13, and sought mental health counseling to deal with depression and anxiety from the abuse after his arrest. Dozens of family members and friends wrote letters on his client’s behalf. The attorney asked the judge to consider “sex offender probation which is no picnic.”

“He is a loving husband, brother and father, and a supportive friend,” Neulieb said. “They do not consider him a sex predator.”

The judge said she took Sonntag’s lack of criminal background into consideration when rendering her sentence. Hyland sentenced Sonntag to 180 days in Cook County Jail and 36 months of sex offender probation, subject to numerous stringent conditions, including no alcohol or drugs, random urine testing, DNA sampling, polygraph testing and attending a sex offender treatment program.

Sonntag also cannot work or live within 500 feet of a park, school, arcade, or any other business or institution catering to children. He cannot maintain contact with any children under the age of 18 except for his own children, abide by a curfew, not possess pornography or adult erotica in his home, and have limited internet access. He must also register as a sex offender with the state of Illinois.

Under the law, Sonntag has a month to appeal the verdict and sentence. Sonntag has earned 111 days credit in Cook County Jail since being taken into custody following his guilty verdict on Oct. 8. The judge warned Sonntag that he would be closely monitored while on sex offender probation, which terminates Nov. 23, 2022.

“This is a zero tolerance probation,” Hyland said. “Any violation of the conditions you will be looking at the minimum of six years in prison all the way to 14 years.”