Illinois Citizens Want Mandatory Background Checks

Illinois Citizens Want Mandatory Background Checks 

This in From Firegeezer

UPSET AT LEARNING THAT A MEMBER OF THE ROCHESTER, ILLINOIS, VFD was recently arrested on child pornography charges, a citizen of Rochester has asked the state legislature to pass a law requiring background checks on all FD applicants in the state.

Even though that in this recent case, Justin Weaver probably would have passed the screening, Kathryn Dinardo still thinks that it should be made mandatory.  The Springfield State Journal-Register reports:

Speaking at a meeting last week of the Rochester Fire Protection Board, Dinardo told fire trustees she has asked state Sen. Larry Bomke, R-Springfield, to introduce legislation requiring background checks.

If mandatory background checks had been in place, Dinardo believes the Rochester Fire Department might not have hired Justin Weaver, who was arrested this month on federal child pornography charges. Weaver, 24, is the son of another Rochester firefighter.

Federal authorities said some of the images they found on Weaver’s computer were of him with children while he was in his firefighter’s uniform and at the Rochester fire station.

“As a fireman, the defendant placed himself in a position where children would trust and be drawn to him,” prosecutors stated in a proffer to the court. “Many of the images recovered from his computer show the defendant with children in his uniform and around the fire station.”

However, the fire district’s attorney says that in this case any background check wouldn’t have shown any potential problem with Weaver.

The volunteer departments throughout the state have varying policies on if and what kind of background checking is carried out.

Read the entire story HERE.

Weaver was indicted on May 8 following an investigation by several local police agencies and federal authorities.  After receiving tips from family members, they obtained search warrants on January 9 and raided Weaver’s home.  According to the State Journal-Register:

Weaver reformatted his computer in January and deleted all the child pornography, authorities say, but he allegedly told his wife he also viewed such images on his father’s computer.

Police seized three computers and multiple CDs and DVDs from the Mechanicsburg Road residence and another computer at Weaver’s father’s home.

Authorities did a forensic examination of the computers and found one was reformatted the afternoon of Jan. 4. Even so, they found 3,908 images of child pornography on the machine, primarily of young boys who resemble the 13-month-old and the 7-year-old, according to the court documents. Authorities also allegedly found an additional 172 images of child pornography on Weaver’s father’s computer.

They also recovered “many other images of (Weaver) with other children, primarily young boys, including images of young boys in various states of undress and asleep,” the court documents say. Police have not identified all of the children.

Weaver’s trial is scheduled for July 7.  The full story on the arrest earlier this month is HERE.