COOK COUNTY, IL – A 69-year-old Des Plaines man has been charged with multiple felonies after he solicited an investigator from the Cook County Sheriff’s Police Special Victims Unit who was posing as a teenage boy on a social media app, Sheriff Thomas J. Dart announced today.
John Kaspari, of the 300 block of West Millers Road in Des Plaines, was arrested on Tuesday, April 13, by the Sheriff’s Police after he arranged to meet an individual he thought was a 13-year-old boy.
On April 7, the Special Victims Unit began an investigation after learning that the teenager was receiving inappropriate messages from Kaspari. An investigator took over conversations with Kaspari and, over the course of several days, he sent sexually explicit messages to who he though was a teenage boy, suggested that the two meet, and agreed not to tell the boy’s mother.
The investigator arranged to meet Kaspari at 7 p.m., on April 13 at a location in Franklin Park. Investigators took Kaspari into custody when he arrived at the predetermined location.
After he was issued his Miranda warning, Kaspari told investigators that he believed the person he was chatting with was a 13-year-old male. He also made admissions to having child pornography on his phone. Officers recovered multiple images and videos depicting child pornography on his phone.
Kaspari will appear in bond court later today in Maywood on felony charges of possession of child pornography, aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a minor, indecent solicitation of a minor, traveling to meet a minor, and grooming a minor.
The public is reminded that the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty by the government in a court of law.