A Marengo historian, known for making history presentations across the Chicagoland area, has pleaded guilty in McHenry County Court to possession of child sexual abuse materials.
James R. Gibbons, 73, of Marengo, was charged in December with two counts of possession of child pornography, a Class 2 felony.
McHenry County Assistant State’s Attorney Sawyer Schexnider said a cybertip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) was forwarded to the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office for possible child sexual abuse material.
The investigation led detectives to an IP address associated with Gibbons’s address in Marengo, Schexnider said.
Law enforcement obtained a search warrant for his home and located devices containing child sexual abuse material, Schexnider said.
Court documents said two files of the material were found involving children under 13, including one of a toddler.
Gibbons reportedly admitted to viewing the images several times while saying he would not do it again.
Investigators also found he had used specific keywords in his search for the explicit material.
Additional devices analyzed contained “hundreds of artifacts” of child sexual abuse material, court documents said.
The McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office filed a petition to detain Gibbons pending trial, arguing there were no conditions of release that the court could impose to keep the community safe from Gibbons’ dangerousness.
“This Defendant’s request for said materials creates an appetite for the continual production of this illegal content which makes this Defendant pose a real and present threat to the community,” McHenry County Judge Cynthia Lamb said.
“Therefore, this court finds that by clear and convincing evidence this defendant does pose a real and present threat to the safety of a person, persons or the community based on these specific articulable facts,” the judge said.
Gibbons does not have prior arrests, but he had been seeking the material since 2003 or 2004, court documents said.
The judge said that Gibbons knows the material to be illegal, but cannot stop his behavior in seeking it out. She granted the petition to detain him pending trial following a hearing on Friday.
McHenry County State’s Attorney Randi Freese said after the hearing that she commends the detectives from the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office for a thorough investigation that led to the charges.
Court records show Gibbons officially pleaded guilty Monday to a Class 2 felony count of possession of child abuse material with a victim under the age of 13.
As part of the plea deal, he was sentenced to 30 months of probation and a fine of $4,639.
Gibbons is also required to register as a sex offender for the remainder of his natural life.
Gibbons received credit for 180 days he already served in McHenry County Jail while awaiting trial, court records show.
As part of the plea deal, additional charges of possession of child sexual abuse material were dropped.
Gibbons and his daughter previously operated Jim Gibbons Historical Presentations.
According to the website they had before the charges were announced in December, they offered “informative and riveting presentations that educate and enlighten audiences of all ages on events, people, and places in history.”
“Drawing from their research and knowledge of past events, they bring to light information that applies to our lives today,” the website claimed.
The site showed Gibbons’s presence at places across the Chicagoland area.