COOK COUNTY, IL – A Chicago man who engaged in sexually explicit conversations and sent graphic videos to a Cook County Sheriff’s Police Special Victims Unit investigator posing as a 15-year-old boy has been charged with multiple felonies related to sex offenses against children, Sheriff Thomas J. Dart announced today.
On April 22, an SVU investigator was contacted via a popular messaging app by Francis Agins, 32, of the 10500 block of South Avenue J, who initiated a sexual conversation. The investigator texted Agins that he was 15. Over the next 13 days, Agins sent explicit messages and videos of himself to the investigator and repeatedly requested that the investigator posing as a minor send him sexually explicit pictures.
On May 5, the investigator arranged to meet Agins at a fast-food restaurant in Oak Lawn, and when Agins arrived, he was placed into custody and transported to Sheriff’s Police headquarters in Maywood. After being issued his Miranda warning, Agins told investigators he believed the person he was texting was a minor, and that he sent sexually explicit texts and videos to the individual. A subsequent search of Agins’ mobile device revealed multiple images of prepubescent minors engaged in sexual acts.
Agins appeared in the Bridgeview Courthouse today for a bond hearing where bond was set at $20,000 D on felony charges of grooming, indecent solicitation of a child via the internet, indecent solicitation/aggravated criminal sexual abuse, traveling to meet a minor, aggravated criminal sexual abuse/victim over 5 years old, manufacturing harmful material/webcam/device, possession of child pornography, and solicitation of child pornography.
The public is reminded that the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty by the government in a court of law.