A Round Lake man pleaded guilty to charges of child pornography in Lake County Circuit Court on Thursday afternoon, abruptly ending his trial prior to its conclusion.
Roger Latimer, 52, had been on trial this week on five counts of possession of child pornography depicting subjects under the age of 13. Before the trial proceedings started up again Thursday afternoon, Latimer accepted a plea deal and was sentenced to three years in prison.
Latimer pleaded guilty to one of the five counts against him in exchange for the three-year sentence and the dismissal of the remaining counts.
He had faced a possible sentencing range of three to seven years in prison if he had been convicted on the charges against him in a bench trial before Judge Victoria Rossetti.
Rossetti accepted the plea deal, finding that there was sufficient evidence to find Latimer guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Rossetti said Latimer will be certified as a sexual predator and must register as a sex offender for life.
Rossetti said Latimer would be eligible for day-for-day credit in prison and that he also will be given credit for the 494 days he has spent in custody since his arrest. After his term is served, he will spend two years under mandatory supervised release, she said.
In opening statements Monday, Assistant State’s Attorney George Pappas said the charges against Latimer resulted from the alleged discovery of five images of child pornography among a large amount of pornography found on his computer.
Pappas said that on Aug. 14, 2015, Latimer called Round Lake police alleging that a relative in his home had physically attacked him.
When police arrived, Latimer brought out his cellphone to show officers pictures of injuries he had allegedly suffered at the hands of the same relative previously, but as Latimer was scrolling through pictures on his phone, an officer spotted two pictures of a naked 3-year-old boy known to Latimer.
Latimer told police he took the pictures because he was concerned the child might have had a medical problem, but he also admitted that he had taken the pictures a month earlier and never shown them to a doctor.
That initiated a police investigation that included a search of Latimer’s home computer. Authorities said a cyber-investigator with the Lake County state’s attorney’s office found five images of child pornography involving children unknown to Latimer amid thousands of other pornographic images on the computer.
Latimer was charged for the five images found on the home computer, not the pictures police saw on his phone.
Defense attorney Nicholas Giordano had initially argued that the state could not prove that Latimer was responsible for the pictures for which he was charged. He said that at least five people had access to the computer, which also included a guest sign-in that was probably not password-protected.
But based on rulings made by the judge during the trial regarding certain state evidence, Giordano said he and his client found that it was more than likely the trial would end in a conviction, and his client chose to accept the plea deal.
Latimer, who has been in the custody of the Lake County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail, waived his right to a jury trial, opting for a bench trial before Rossetti instead. He will be transferred to the Illinois Department of Corrections to serve the remainder of his sentence.
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