A federal judge has ordered an Illinois State Police trooper from Deerfield, who has been placed on leave, held pending trial after he was arrested for allegedly distributing child sexual abuse material.
Colin Gruenke, 38, of Deerfield, was federally charged last week with one count of distribution of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.
A criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois said an investigation began last year after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received a report of the social networking platform Kik.
Kik reported that an individual used a Kik account to upload and distribute multiple files of apparent child pornography in September 2024.
Kik submitted another tip later in the month about a second Kik account uploading and distributing multiple files of apparent child pornography.
Both accounts were linked back to Gruenke and his Deerfield residence, the complaint said.
Gruenke is employed as a Trooper First Class with the Illinois State Police.
A spokesperson for the agency said Wednesday that Gruenke has since been placed on administrative leave without pay.
Search warrants were authorized on August 1 for Gruenke’s person and his residence, where he lives alone.
Agents conducted the search warrant for Gruenke at the Illinois State Police headquarters in Des Plaines last Wednesday and then conducted the warrant for the residence at his home shortly after.
Gruenke was holding an Apple iPhone when agents approached him.
They seized the phone and conducted a review, which showed thumbnails of deleted screenshots depicting child pornography in the device’s Files application, the complaint said.
The images were recovered and law enforcement confirmed they involved young children and were sexual in nature.
Law enforcement also seized a flash drive in a nightstand drawer in a bedroom at Gruenke’s residence, the complaint said.
Approximately 200 video files of child pornography, including of young children being sexually abused by adults, were found on the drive.
In a four-day span in September 2024, Gruenke allegedly sent from one Kik account at least 14 files depicting child pornography to other Kik users in the context of “discussing a desire to rape or sexually assault children” as young as one year old, the complaint said.
In addition to being a police officer, Gruenke was previously also associated with ice hockey and refereed youth hockey league games. It is unclear whether he is currently a youth hockey referee.
Following a detention hearing that was held on Monday, U.S. District Judge Young B. Kim granted the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s request to hold Gruenke in custody pending trial.
A next court date has not been scheduled yet.