Nine Years, but Zero Time

Ain't Illinois "justice" great?

• A 30-year-old Chicago man has been sentenced to nine years in prison for possessing child pornography after his parole agent caught him engaging in a sexual video call with a 14-year-old girl, court records show.

  In 2022, Julio Rodriguez faced a 20-count child pornography indictment but pleaded guilty to a single count on August 16, 2024, receiving a three-year sentence from Judge Michael Clancy. With a 50% sentence reduction and credit for time on an ankle monitor, Rodriguez served no prison time, entering and exiting Stateville Correctional Center on August 20, 2024.

And then, you'll never guess what happened:

• Less than three months later, on December 5, a parole agent visited Rodriguez’s halfway house in the 8100 block of South Cottage Grove after he failed to report his living arrangements as required. The agent found Rodriguez with his pants down, performing a sex act while on a video call with a young girl, prosecutors claimed. Rodriguez dropped his phone, revealing the girl’s screen name to the agent before she ended the call.

This time, he caught a nine-year sentence. But if he had been inside on the previous sentence instead of "serving" ankle monitor time, he wouldn't have been able to commit further crimes.