5 Sexual Predators Move Into Joliet West Side Neighborhood

JOLIET, IL — An expanding company that specializes in finding affordable housing for sex offenders in parts of Illinois now owns a property on Joliet's west side where at least five out of town convicted sexual predators are residing. All of them committed crimes against children between the ages of 8 and 13, Joliet Patch has learned.

Public records indicate the apartment building at 1000 Cora St. was purchased last December by a company called NewDay Apartments. The Joliet property is at the corner of Cora and Moran streets. A review of the Illinois State Police's sex offender registry shows that five men who are deemed sexual predators are all currently living in Joliet at 1000 Cora St.

Joliet Patch has learned there will be a meeting of the Cunningham Neighborhood Association at 6:30 p.m. next Wednesday at the Moran Athletic Club to discuss the issue.

In recent days, John Sheridan, president of the Cunningham Neighborhood Council, sent an email to Joliet's Neighborhood Services Director Keith Jorstad voicing concern about 1000 Cora St.

"I got a call from a couple of residents that live on Cora Street about the new owners of 1000 Cora Street," Sheridan wrote in his email. "This company provides housing for sex offenders. The house is actually shown on their website."

On Tuesday night, Joliet Patch reached out to Sheridan for additional information.

In his reply, Sheridan wrote: "Sorry, I have no comments on that property at this time. I'm in the process of collecting the facts. I was contacted by a couple of residents in the Cunningham area, and they voiced some concerns."

In any event, Sheridan's email to Joliet's neighborhood services director inquired, "Wouldn't this type of business need to have a special use permit for this type of use? The street corner the house sits on is one of the main streets where a whole lot of kids pass by walking their way to Cunningham School every day. Not an ideal location for sex offenders."

Sheridan asked Jorstad "to have one of your staff look into this location and report back their findings ... I know this will be a hot issue."

On Tuesday night, Patch contacted Joliet Mayor Bob O'Dekirk for comment.

O'Dekirk said he did not realize that a group of five registered sex offenders were all sharing the same address at 1000 Cora St.

The mayor wrote back to Joliet Patch, suggesting this "has to be a state or federal program. They are probably getting money for this."

According to its website, NewDay Apartments provide "Affordable Registrant Housing In Kane, Lake & Will Counties, Illinois. NewDay Apartments specializes in providing housing to sex offenders required to register under 730 ILCS 150."

NewDay Apartments states that it was founded in 2016 "to address one of the most important & least understood problems in the American justice system: how to safely house the ever-growing number of registrants, the term NewDay uses for those on sex offender registries, in the United States today."

On Tuesday, Joliet Patch obtained information for the five registered sexual predators who now call Joliet's west side their home, all at 1000 Cora St.

• On May 6, 53-year-old Arturo Arce was paroled from the Danville Correctional Center, where he served an 11-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2012 of predatory criminal sexual assault in Kane County. Arce was 44 and his victim was 13. Arce is 5-foot-5 and weighs 226. Arce's photo is at the top of this article. At the moment, the Illinois State Police's convicted sex offender registry lists Arce as being non-compliant.

• Richard Rheinschmidt, age 76, was convicted of predatory criminal sexual assault in Winnebago County. Rheinschmidt was 56 and his victim was 8. Rheinschmidt is 6-foot and weighs 248 pounds. An article in the Rockford Sun from last year revealed that Rheinschmidt would be released from the Taylorville Correctional Center on Oct. 26, 2021.

• Darnell Thompson, age 39, was convicted of predatory criminal sexual assault in Cook County when Thompson was 32 and his victim was 8. Thompson is 5-foot-10 and weighs 140 pounds. Thompson was paroled from the Illinois Department of Corrections' Lincoln Correctional Center in January.

Brian Angel, age 43, was convicted in Greene County of aggravated criminal sexual abuse involving a victim 13 to 16. Angel was 37 and his victim was 13. Angel is 6-foot and weighs 200 pounds.

According to one news report, the Carrollton Police found that Angel was trying to contact the 13-year-old girl on social media in 2017, and he had sexual contact with the girl at least once. In 2017, Angel was arrested on charges of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, unlawful grooming of a minor, unlawful solicitation to meet a minor and unlawful traveling to meet a minor.

• Rochelle "Rocky" Taylor, age 60, was convicted of child pornography in Cook County when Taylor was 57 and the victim was 8. In 2019, Patch reported that the Chicago man was arrested after it was determined he had been downloading photos and videos of children engaged in explicit sexual acts from an internet file sharing site, prosecutors said. He is 6-foot-2 and weighs 255 pounds.

In 2019, the task force executed a warrant at Taylor's home, where they found 60 graphic images and videos of children ages 8 to 16 engaged in sexual acts stored on micro SD cards, according to the allegations. Investigators also found 12 child porn videos that had been downloaded to thumb drives in Taylor's pockets, the prosecutor said. The article in the Evergreen Park Patch was headlined, "Task Force Nabs Man With Pockets Full Of Child Porn: Prosecutor."