Joliet Newspaper Reporter Guilty in Federal Child Porn Case

A 78-year-old Joliet newspaper reporter was found guilty in a federal child pornography case and will likely die in prison.

John Gabriel will be sentenced to at least 15 years in federal prison. A jury found him guilty on Thursday.

Gabriel was jailed a year and a half ago on federal charges of 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.

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

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, according to a court filing.

The emails were actually written by Gabriel himself, according to prosecutors.

Gabriel preyed on other girls and young women in addition to the 17-year-old, Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Jonas said in a court transcript.

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

Hernandez caught a sex case of her own in Will County for her alleged tryst with a 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.

Jonas accused Gabriel of “brainwashing” the youths and women he allegedly bamboozled with his elaborate fantasy sex world.

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

Gabriel’s sentencing hearing has yet to be scheduled.

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