Joliet Ousts 'Pedophile Palace' From Cunningham Neighborhood

JOLIET — The president of the Cunningham Neighborhood Council John Sheridan and Jim Lanham, the Republican Joliet resident challenging incumbent Larry Walsh Jr. in the 86th District state representative race, both praised the Joliet City Council for approving $100,000 to finally build the Cunningham Neighborhood Park at 1000 N. Center St.

Without question, both men told Joliet Patch during Wednesday's Facebook Live interview, the 11 child sexual offenders who are all occupying the same two-story apartment building only one block away, at 1000 Cora Street, will all be gone in the coming months.

You can watch the entire video interview with Lanham and Sheridan at the very bottom of this article.

The concept of building the neighborhood park has been in the works since 2022, but the project fell off the city's radar as City Hall changed administrations. Joliet's newly appointed community development director Dustin Anderson took the initiative to get the park built. Anderson said the park should be dedicated by late spring or early summer 2025.

That means that none of the registered child sexual predators will be able to live at 1000 Cora Street anymore, according to Sheridan and Lanham.

Back in 2022, Lanham came up with the phrase "Pedophile Palace," to describe the concrete apartment building at the corner of Cora and Moran Street, 1000 Cora St.

"Yes I did, and I also got scolded by the NARSOL people, which is the National Association for Rational Sex Offense Laws," Lanham told Joliet Patch. "They were very offended that I called pedophiles 'pedophiles.' They think I should call them 'registrants' instead. But, they're pedophiles, and they're predators, and that's what they are."

According to his research on the Illinois State Police website, Sheridan said there appears to be as many as 11 sexual predators residing at 1000 Cora St. Both men explained that the Lake Zurich-based company known as NewDay Apartments partnered with NARSOL to bring the convicted sexual offenders to Joliet's Cunningham Neighborhood, over two years ago.

Joliet Patch asked Sheridan and Lanham if the new neighborhood park will force the child sexual offenders at 1000 Cora to move elsewhere, once the park is formally dedicated.

"It's my understanding the city of Aurora did a similar move," Lanham explained. "They built a park near some homeless or pedophile shelter and the pedophiles sued thinking that they didn't have to move, but by the time the lawsuit came to fruition, they all just up and left, and they decided not to deal with it.

"But a judge ruled in the favor of the city of Aurora, saying that what they were doing was in the public interest and in the safety of children so they're going to have to go, and even NewDay Apartments and their legal team said we'll just move the pedophiles and put in adult sex offenders which isn't good, but it's the lesser of two evils."

Sheridan pointed out there are two different types of sexual offenders on the Illinois registry.

"There's a sexual offender and there's a sexual predator," he said. "The predator is the worst of the bunch. The sexual offender only has to register every 10 years, where lifetime is for a sexual predator. And as the (Joliet) city attorney pointed out last night, the children are the key word here. They're living next to a park that would have children, so that makes them a sexual predator, and that's the one type that can be forced to leave, whether this park was here before or after their residency."

Patch asked Sheridan if he expected the current group of 11 sexual predators to be residing at 1000 Cora St. a year from now.

"That house would be empty," Sheridan responded. "They're all sexual predators, so in my opinion, that house would be empty, and we would have sexual offenders there rather than predators ... I think they'll all be gone."

"If they were adults that offended against other adults, they'll be moved in there," Lanham predicted. "But there is also another loophole in Illinois law where child sex offenders and some predators can live near a school if they've only been convicted of criminal sexual abuse or sexual abuse, which doesn't make any sense, they're still child offenders ... there was one living across from a school in Plainfield, which is legal because the law was changed, it was amended to allow them more freedom and that's not right, that's the General Assembly not looking out for the safety of our children."