Waukegan man denies possessing porn on cell phone

A Waukegan man arrested for videotaping proceedings in a Lake County branch court with his cellphone pleaded not guilty Tuesday to possessing the child pornography police say they found on the phone.

Ricardo Alvarez, 33, faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of eavesdropping and another seven years if found guilty of aggravated possession of child pornography.

Assistant State’s Attorney Mary Stanton said that on Sept. 12, Alvarez was caught using his cellphone camera to videotape proceedings in the courtroom of Associate Judge Nancy Waites in Park City branch court.

As a result of that arrest, Stanton said, police seized the phone and subjected it to a forensic examination.

During that examination, investigators found several lewd images of children stored on the phone, Stanton said.

Alvarez, of the 200 block of Ridgeland Avenue, had been free after posting 10 percent of a $30,000 bail on the eavesdropping charge.

But Circuit Judge James Booras raised Alvarez’s bail to $50,000 based on the new child pornography charge, requiring Alvarez to post an additional $2,000 to be released.

Booras also told Alvarez that if he posts the additional cash, he is not to use the Internet for any purpose, must make his computers and telephones available for inspection by officials and is not to have any unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 18.

Defense attorney James Schwarzbach told Booras that his client “Was committed to resolving these matters as quickly as possible,” and asked that a sex offender evaluation of Alvarez be prepared.

Booras scheduled a trial of the case for Feb. 10.