DropBox Tip Leads To Child Pornography Charge For Des Plaines Man

SKOKIE, IL — Authorities said a tip from a cloud storage website led investigators to a Des Plaines man accused of having about 40 images on his cell phone depicting child sexual abuse.

Cholino Sanchez-Gonzalez, 24, of the 500 block of Kenilworth Court, was arrested Tuesday and charged with one count of possession of child pornography.

A forensic examination of his phone revealed it contained photos of sex abuse victims as young as 8, according to the Cook County Sheriff's Office. At a bond hearing Thursday in Skokie, prosecutors said at least seven of the images depicted children under the age of 13.

The investigation began with a tip from DropBox to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Representatives of the cloud storage company reported that someone had updated seven files containing child sexual abuse materials to its website.

Officers executed a search warrant on the account and found a folder labeled "XXX" with 20 images, and grand jury subpoenas later linked the email and internet protocol addresses associated with the DropBox account to Sanchez-Gonzalez, according to Assistant State's Attorney Ada Mares.

Police said they took Sanchez-Gonzalez into custody Tuesday after an investigative traffic stop, and he waived his right to remain silent before showing detectives where he had saved explicit images of underage children on his phone.

"[Sanchez-Gonzalez] admitted to going on a website and application and purchasing both packages of nude photos of girls," Mares said at Thursday's hearing. "[He] admitted to saving multiple images of nude girls under the age of 18 on his phone and on his DropBox account."

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Klaudia Stolarczuk, Sanchez-Gonzalez's defense attorney, said he lives with his parents and has managed a tire shop in Des Plaines for the past five years. She asked that he be allowed to continue to work and use a phone while awaiting trial.

Cook County Associate Judge Frank Andreou said he found Sanchez-Gonzalez to be a danger to anyone under the age of 18 and ordered him held in lieu of the $35,000 cash portion of his bail.

"The allegation, as brought, is severe," Andreou said. "And generally the defendant does pose a threat to others."

Although Sanchez-Gonzalez is currently charged with a single class 2 felony count, prosecutors said in court Thursday that they are seeking a grand jury indictment on additional counts, noting there were already 15 images for which he could be charged.

If Sanchez-Gonzalez posts bail, he will be forbidden from using the internet and subject to electronic monitoring while awaiting trial, Adreou ordered. Sanchez-Gonzalez is due back in court Sept. 30 in Skokie.