Willow Springs man charged with possessing, sharing child porn

A southwest suburban Willow Springs man was arrested Tuesday and charged with downloading and sharing child pornography.

Dustin Sacks, 46, has been charged with disseminating child pornography and possession of child pornography with a child uner 13, according to a statement from the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.

Sacks was arrested after officers searched his home in the 8500 bock of Candlelight Drive in Willow Springs, authorities said. Three computers, three jump drives, two hard drives and numerous storage devices were recovered and seized.

He had become the target of an investigation by the Cook County Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, whose officers were monitoring a peer-to-peer file sharing program. They were able to trace an IP address and identification number that was unique to a computer, prosectors said. From Nov. 27, 2015 to Jan. 17, investigators downloaded several files from the IP address and found illegal videos of young children.

An initial forensic analysis of the equipment seized from Sacks’ home revealed thousands of files containing child pornography, including those downloaded by the officers during the investigation, prosecutors said.

On Thursday, Sacks was ordered held at the Cook Count Jail on a $150,000 bond, court records show. He is next scheduled to appear in court March 10.