Joliet Newspaper Reporter Created Sex 'Cult,' Says Federal Prosecutor

A Joliet newspaper reporter jailed on federal child porn charges held sway over at least two children and possibly two young women whom he brainwashed into his sex “cult,” a federal prosecutor said.

“And I don’t know if it’s—I hate to say brainwashing,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Jonas said of the mental manipulation allegedly conducted by 78-year-old community newsman John Gabriel.

“This is—this is a cult, what it really comes down,” Jonas said.

Gabriel was charged in September 2013 with persuading, inducing and enticing a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing child pornography. He was also charged with obstructing justice for allegedly destroying a desktop computer while FBI agents were raiding his house on Joliet’s far west side.

Prosecutors recently revealed that Gabriel allegedly created an elaborate “fantasy world based in religion” in order to dupe an underage girl into posing for sex pictures he posted on a website in hopes of enticing “young boys to have sex with” her. This fantasy world was populated by numerous angels and priestesses who would email Gabriel’s victims and encourage them to submit to his sexual advances, as well as to have sex with underage boys, the filing said. The emails were actually written by Gabriel himself, according to prosecutors.

Gabriel’s charges stem from allegedly victimizing a 17-year-old girl he had known since she was a baby, Jonas said, according to a transcript of a hearing in federal court.

But the teen was not the only one tangled up in the web Gabriel wove, Jonas said.

“Clearly the victim’s sister and the aunt are all wrapped up in this,” he said. And Gabriel’s much younger live-in lover, 35-year-old Margarita Hernandez, may have been as well.

Gabriel also enticed the teen’s brother, who was 12 at the time, to spend a weekend at the Joliet home he shared with Hernandez, Jonas said. Hernandez is the cousin of this boy’s mother, an official previously said.

The brother brought along a 15-year-old friend, Jonas said, and the friend had sex with Hernandez that weekend.

Hernandez caught a sex case of her own in Will County for her alleged tryst with the teenage boy. It has yet to be resolved.

In a recent filing, a Will County prosecutor said police searching Gabriel and Hernandez’s home found “video of (her) having sex with two different adolescents who appear to be possibly under the age of 18.”

Hernandez also may have been beguiled by Gabriel. According to a court filing, federal agents found a 2002 letter sent to “Princess Margarita” from a “priestess” named “Di.” The letter was actually penned by Gabriel, according to the feds.

The aunt and sister of Gabriel’s victim were pulled in front of a grand jury, Jonas said, but they were less than forthcoming.

“The victim’s sister denied knowing anything about the program,” Jonas said. “So did the aunt, that it didn’t exist, didn’t know anything about it, and said the victim is just a liar.

“Then (we) asked the victim’s sister if the defendant ever took nude pictures of her in his house,” Jonas said. “And she totally denied (it). Never, never posed nude for anybody. We have those pictures. We have the pictures of the victim’s sister nude in the same room that the victim’s pictures were taken, the defendant’s house.”

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