Ex-cop gets 31 years for sex act in Iowa with boy
Donald Rager used to be a police officer in Lake and McHenry counties, but now he'll spend more than 31 years in federal prison for having sex with a teenage boy from Iowa he met on the Internet.
Rager, 41, of Grayslake, was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, as part of a negotiated guilty plea.
"A very prolific sexual predator," said Bob Teig, a spokesman for Cedar Rapids-based U.S. Attorney Matt Dummermuth.
Rager received 376 months behind bars after admitting to one count of traveling in interstate commerce to engage in sexual conduct with a minor, one count of producing child pornography and one count of transporting child porn across a state line.
Federal prosecutors said Rager most recently owned Mill Creek Protection Services in Grayslake, and was a part-time cop in Oakwood Hills in McHenry County. He was a Lake County sheriff's deputy before working as a Gurnee police officer from 1993 to 1997.
Teig said prosecutors developed information that Rager sexually abused 13 other boys from Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana he met on the Internet. He said Rager wasn't charged for those attacks on the boys, who were 14 to 16 years old, but did not elaborate.
Moreover, Teig said, Rager was involved over the Internet with a London man -- since charged by English authorities -- who sexually abused a 10-year-old boy. Teig said Rager watched the man have sex with the child over a live Web camera.
Rager admitted having sex with the then-13-year-old Iowa boy, and videotaping the encounter Feb. 12, 2006. Rager met the boy in an Internet chat room.
After meeting in person at Dubuque's Kennedy Mall, Rager brought the teen to a hotel room for sex. During the attack, prosecutors said, Rager ran a video on a laptop computer that showed him discharging a firearm after having sex with another minor boy.
Court documents state the Iowa boy's mother became suspicious after he used his father's wireless telephone to call Rager on two days in March 2007, followed by e-mails.
Authorities said the boy admitted he had sex with Rager after his mother contacted the Dubuque County sheriff's office April 20, 2007.
"She gets a lot of credit for being brave in this whole thing," Teig said of the woman.
Working with the teen, three Dubuque law-enforcement agencies set up an undercover sting operation to target Rager with monitored telephone calls and e-mails.
At one point, Rager replied to an e-mail by stating he'd bring handcuffs, matching thongs and other items for a second sexual meeting with the boy while he was in the Quad Cities for an arena football game.
Police seized Rager when he arrived for the teenager at the Dubuque mall May 18, 2007. Rager, who faced a maximum of 80 years in prison, has been held without bond in a federal detention center since his arrest.
Rager must serve a life term of supervised release after his prison term. The federal penitentiary system doesn't have parole.