No More Internet For Channahon Teen Facing Child Porn Charge: Judge

CHANNAHON — The Will County State's Attorney's Office of Jim Glasgow lost last week's effort to keep Channahon teenager Hayden Pearson in the Will County Jail in connection with his charges of child pornography and possessing a fake Illinois driver's license.

Pearson, who turns 19 years old in the coming weeks, was represented in the courtroom of Judge Derek Ewanic by prominent Joliet defense attorney George Lenard. The judge ruled in favor of the defendant, but ordered Pearson to have "no internet access for the pendency of this case."

The Will County criminal complaint from last week charged Pearson with child pornography, as well as possession of a fictitious or unlawfully altered driver's license. The Channahon Police Department filed the criminal complaint.

The petition to deny pretrial release for Pearson that on Jan. 3, Channahon police were contacted by the Normal Police Department regarding a cyber tip involving child pornography posted to Twitter/X that involved an explicit 43-second-long video of a young girl.

Eventually, the police learned that two files were uploaded to Twitter/X and the police inquiry "uncovered multiple IP addresses belonged to Illinois State University in Normal and a Comcast address," court records show. The police later determined that the Comcast address came from the 26100 block of South Bell Road in Channahon and the defendant's mother.

"The Comcast IP address indicated an upload location ... in Channahon ... from the defendant's phone number. This file depicts an unclothed minor in a pose involving lewd exhibition," the prosecutors noted. "A review of the subpoena response from Twitter/X included multiple dates on which the Channahon IP address was used to upload pornographic and (child sexual abuse material)."

On Feb. 11, Channahon police went to the Pearson home for a search warrant, and Pearson was arrested. At the police station, Pearson "made partial admissions to exchanging photos on Twitter. The defendant's phone was recovered and officers located additional images of prepubescent females. A search of the defendant's room uncovered a fictitious driver's license with a DOB of October 5, 2002."

Will County jail records show that Pearson was set free on Feb. 13, after spending three days in custody.