Search for Child Porn Leads to Weapons Charges

River Forest police went searching for kiddie porn inside a Forest Park man's home and instead turned up an illegal .357 magnum and nine rounds of bullets, authorities said. 

The ordeal began in January, when police said a security guard working at s Crown Library spotted what he believed was child pornography on a library computer used by 51-year-old Mark Gandolfo. 

Gandolfo, who police said "jumped up and shut off the monitor," was then escorted from the library.  The computer, which River Forest Interim Police Chief Greg Weiss said showed 51 pages of what was believed to be kiddie porn, was turned over to authorities. 

Weiss said the images depicted what "appeared to be nude children and children involved in various sex acts." 

Reached on Monday, Gandolfo told Patch he was looking at "a whole bunch of stuff" on the computer and that "some of it might've been" child pornography, adding that some pages popped up unexpectedly on the web browser. 

"In my opinion, I wasn't doing anything illegal," he said. "I was wasting the university's time and probably wasting the university's resources doing something frivolous." 

On Friday, investigators searched Gandolfo's Forest Park apartment in the 300 block of Circle Avenue. They didn't unearth any illegal child pornography, but they did find a .357 magnum revolver and nine rounds of hollow point bullets, police said. 

The discovery led to charges of unlawful possession of a weapon and possession of firearm ammunition without a Firearm Owner's Identification (FOID) card.

But Gandolfo wasn't charged in connection with the pornography because of what police called "insufficient forensic evidence." The web pages, police said, were on the university computer's temporary web history and not on Gandolfo's personal computer. 

He is scheduled to appear at the Maybrook courthouse April 15. 

A maintenance man contracted by Dominican University who was spotted ogling a student showering in a women's locker room was charged with disorderly conduct, authorities said. 

Mateusz Sokacz, 22, made his way inside a women's bathroom at the university March 4 and watched as a woman showered "by looking over a wall that divides
the showers," police said. 

Sokacz, of the 3400 block of Laramie Avenue in Chicago, is scheduled to appear at the Maybrook courthouse April 15.