A Lake in the Hills man, who was a middle school teacher, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography.
Scott E. Pollack, 47, of the 5900 block of Lucerne Lane in Lake in the Hills, was charged in January 2020 with nine counts of dissemination of child pornography, one count of possession of child pornography and one count of unauthorized video recording.
Pollack initially pleaded not guilty to his charges but on Wednesday he entered into a plea agreement with the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office.
Pollack pleaded guilty to one count of dissemination of child pornography, a Class X felony, in exchange for his other charges being dismissed.
McHenry County Judge Robert Wilbrandt sentenced the man to 10 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.
He will also be required to register as a sex offender and pay over $9,000 in court fees and fines, court records show.
Pollack was arrested on January 10, 2020, after the Lake in the Hills Police Department, Wheeling Police Department and the Illinois Attorney General’s Office conducted a search warrant at his Lake in the Hills residence.
Prosecutors said that Pollack possessed child pornography involving a victim under the age of 13, which he uploaded to his Yahoo email account.
Pollack was a teacher and former wrestling coach at Holmes Middle School in Wheeling.
Community Consolidated School District 21 said at the time that authorities told them the charges against Pollack were not the result of any activity or involvement of students in their district.
“Sharing and trading these horrific images victimizes children and their families and impacts the entire community,” Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said after Pollack was sentenced.
“I appreciate the collaboration between local and state law enforcement agencies that led to this sentence, and I am committed to working with agencies at all levels through the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force to protect communities from offenders who commit these terrible crimes,” Raoul added.
The case, which is was handled by Assistant Attorney General Shantikumar Kulkarni, is part of Raoul’s work to investigate and prosecute child pornographers in Illinois, his office said.
Raoul’s office, with a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, runs the Illinois Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force that investigates child exploitation crimes and trains law enforcement agencies.
The task force receives CyberTips — online reports of child pornography — from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Over the last several years, CyberTipline reports have steadily increased and it is projected that reports to the ICAC during 2021 will increase by 23% over 2020.