Child Pornography Defendant Jeremy Ledesma Wins Court Hearing, Will Go Home To Plainfield

JOLIET, IL — Criminal defense attorney Kristine Honiotes prevailed against prosecutor Adam Capelli of the Will County State's Attorney's Office during Thursday's arguments on whether Joliet child pornography defendant Jeremy Ledesma should remain in Will County's Jail under the SAFE-T-Act.

Will County Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak took their arguments under advisement for several minutes before returning to Courtroom 405 to render her decision in the case involving Ledesma, who was terminated by his employer, Joliet Public School District 86, at Wednesday night's meeting. Ledesma worked as a janitor at Eisenhower Academy and had custodial duties at Keith Grade School.

During Thursday's SAFE-T-Act arguments, Capelli maintained that Ledesma was trying to distribute child pornography, but Snapchat thwarted his attempts to upload the child pornography to their site, and that ultimately spurred the Will County Sheriff's Office, which began its investigation last May.

"Snapchat is the one who flagged the video," Capelli explained.

Judge Bertani explained that she was not entirely familiar with Snapchat, so the prosecutor explained how the social media platform worked and how it was his belief that Ledesma was trying to distribute his child pornography images to other users on Snapchat, but the company prevented that from taking place.

Ultimately, Judge Bertani, who has served as a judge for over 30 years, ruled in favor of Ledesma. She pointed out that the Will County Sheriff's Office investigation surrounding the child pornography photos and videos began last May and a search warrant at Ledesma's house in the 6900 block of Twin Falls Drive in the Plainfield area was carried out at the end of September, yet authorities did not take Ledesma into custody at any point until last week.

"He's been in the community since May of last year," Judge Bertani informed Capelli, the prosecutor. "The defendant's been free all this time."

However, Judge Bertani imposed several restrictions on Ledesma's movements in the community once he is freed from the Will County Jail later today. The judge ordered Ledesma to remain under home confinement. He can only leave his family's house in Plainfield for medical appointments, to meet with his lawyer or to attend religious services.

Capelli also asked the judge to put Ledesma on electronic monitoring, and the judge agreed.

Judge Bertani also told Ledesma that he is to have no unsupervised contact with minors and no computer or Internet use.

At one point during Thursday's hearing, Ledesma's lawyer presented the judge with a letter from a medical professional in regard to her client's treatment. According to court testimony, Ledesma spent several days in a treatment facility around the time when Joliet District 86 put him on paid administrative from his janitorial duties back in early October.

Capelli also reminded Judge Bertani that four videos were confiscated from Ledesma's phone that showed he had been filming children at Eisenhower Academy. Although the videos did not show child pornography and were not criminal in nature, the production of these videos "sheds light on the defendant's state of mind," Capelli argued.