Teenage Girl Recorded in LW East HS Locker Room: Cops

An anonymous tip about a secret video of an undressed teenage girl in a Lincoln-Way East locker room led the cops to seize another student’s cell phone and to pursue a criminal case, police said.

A Will County deputy took the tip in April, according to a complaint for a search warrant. The tipster told the deputy a “17-year-old female student had taken, or obtained through electronic transmission, cell phone video in the girls swim team locker room,” the complaint said. The complaint also identified the teen who allegedly possessed the video.

Lincoln-Way East Principal Sharon Michalak “obtained permission to search the contents of (the teen’s) phone,” the complaint said. “After finding a deleted video file in (the teen’s) cell phone, Principal Michalak confirmed that the video was taken in the female locker room and contained images of an unclothed, unidentified female student.”

The teen in the video was later identified as an 18-year-old Lincoln-Way East student, the complaint said.

The 17-year-old “admitted to having a video that originated in the girls aquatic locker room,” police said, but claimed an “unidentified individual had sent it to her.”

The deputy then contacted the father of the 17-year-old who had the video and was “informed by (him) that neither he nor his family would cooperate in this investigation,” the complaint said.

The sheriff’s department obtained a search warrant for the phone last month.

After reviewing the video, it turned out the teen in the recording was actually covered by a towel, said Deputy Chief Rick Ackerson. Ackerson also said the video was very brief, only “one to two seconds” in length.

The teen had attempted to delete the video, Ackerson said.

The sheriff’s department is pursuing a criminal case against a teenage girl in connection with the video, Ackerson said, and the matter was to be forwarded to the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office. Ackerson believes disorderly conduct charges will be filed against the teen.

Lincoln-Way Community Relations Coordinator Abby Milone said she could not discuss specific discipline against a particular student but added that the conduct described in the complaint for the search warrant violates district rules.

“Something like this is not allowed in our schools,” Milone said. “Would there be consequences? Certainly.”