Attorney General Madigan: Metro East Man Arrested on Child Pornography Charges

Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced today that the arrest of a Metro East man on child pornography charges is the 19th suspect taken into custody in her continuing crackdown on the most active traffickers who download and trade child pornography on the Internet.

Michael K. Wyrozynksi, 48, of East Alton, was charged today with 10 counts of Aggravated Possession of Child Pornography in Madison County Circuit Court. The Class 2 felonies are punishable by a three- to seven-year prison term in the Illinois Department of Corrections. East Alton police arrested Wyrozynksi yesterday. He's being held in the Madison County Jail with bond set at $150,000. No court date has been set.

"Possession of child pornography is not a victimless crime. Each time an image or video is viewed, downloaded or traded online, it victimizes children who are being horribly abused," Attorney General Madigan said. "My office will continue to search out these vile offenders and make arrests throughout Illinois to protect the innocent victims whose lives are destroyed by their crimes."

Madigan said cooperation among local and state law enforcement is key to the success of this most recent arrest and her overall crackdown on child pornographers throughout Illinois. Wednesday's arrest involved Attorney General's Office investigators, the East Alton Police Department and the Madison County State's Attorney office.

"My office will continue to work with Lisa Madigan and the Illinois Attorney General's Office to rid our county of those who seek to exploit children. I commend them, along with the East Alton Police Department, in their efforts to keep Madison County free from child pornographers," said State's Attorney Thomas Gibbons.

In August 2010, Attorney General Madigan announced the initiative, dubbed Operation Glass House, to find and arrest the worst child pornographers in Illinois. Investigators use the unique identifier that each computer is assigned when it accesses the Internet, known as an Internet protocol (IP) address. Some 6,000 Illinois IP addresses were seen trading child pornography images and videos across the state by Attorney General's Office investigators.

Studies indicate that users of child pornography are more likely to also be sexual abusers of children. As of March 1, 21,258 sex offenders are listed on the Illinois Sex Offender Registry, of which more than 81 percent committed a crime against a child. The Illinois Sex Offender Registry is located at www.isp.state.il.us.

Madigan also works with local and national law enforcement organizations to address Internet exploitation of children and women. Madigan's office, with a grant from the Department of Justice, runs the Illinois Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force, which investigates child exploitation crimes and trains law enforcement. Since 2006, Madigan's office has been involved in more than 350 arrests of sexual predators and provided Internet safety training and education to more than 164,000 parents, teachers and students and more than 12,500 law enforcement professionals.

The public is reminded that the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty by a court of law.