Citizen policing helps file child porn charges
The combined efforts of a woman citizen worried about harm to children, a Naperville, Ill., detective, and a Wisconsin Department of Justice investigator led to a Watertown man being charged Wednesday with 10 counts of possession of child pornography.
According to court papers filed in Dane and Jefferson counties, Michael Ionetz, 37, bragged to others on the Internet that he liked to sexually assault and torture girls and claimed to have recently had sex with a 13-year-old girl, although he has not been charged with that.
According to a search warrant return filed in Dane County, the investigation into the activities of Ionetz began when a woman saw on the Internet indications that Ionetz was involved with child pornography. Several groups of citizens have formed in recent years to fight child pornography by looking on the Internet and informing law enforcement officials of what they see. None of the court documents says whether the woman was part of such a group or not.
The woman passed on her information to Detective Rich Wistowski of the Naperville, Ill., police and he in turn began actively investigating Ionetz and his Internet activities. The woman said Ionetz had been talking about killing and torturing little girls, and said he likes to prey upon drug addicted women with children, providing the mother with crack cocaine so he could have sex with the children.
Wistowski posed as an adult woman who had a 7-year-old daughter, and soon was having regular Internet exchanges with Ionetz, and eventually Ionetz sent the detective child pornography.
That information was passed on to investigator Jennifer Price of the state Department of Justice Crimes Against Children bureau and she obtained a search warrant to have Ionetz's home in Watertown and his computers searched. Although the home is in Jefferson County, Justice Department investigators often request search warrants in Dane County, where their offices are located.
The home was searched earlier this week and Ionetz was charged Wednesday with 10 counts of possession of child pornography, each of which carries a maximum combined term 25 years of prison and extended supervision.
Ionetz, who has no previous criminal record in Wisconsin according to online court records, made an initial appearance Wednesday before Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge William Hue who set cash bail of $1,000 and ordered Ionetz to have no computers or computer-like devices during the pendency of the case, ordered him to have no contact with children under 18, and ordered him not to leave Wisconsin.
A preliminary hearing in the case will be held July 30 in Jefferson.
