Lake in the Hills man accused of soliciting children on Snapchat
A Lake in the Hills man is accused of using Snapchat to solicit sexually explicit videos from four children — ages 10 to 15 — and having inappropriate conversations with more than 100 children, according to prosecutors.
Ryan Shapiro, 47, is charged with four felony counts of soliciting a child for sexually explicit videos, according to the criminal complaint filed in the McHenry County court.
Shapiro was arrested Wednesday following an investigation involving the FBI tracking multiple IP addresses to Shapiro and devices he used to commit the offenses from home and work, Assistant State’s Attorney Daniel Conroy said.
Shapiro made his first appearance before a judge Thursday, during which Conroy said he is dangerous to the identified children he interacted with as well as any child and should be detained. Judge Cynthia Lamb agreed and denied him pretrial release.
Conroy said Shapiro, a systems administrator, has a felony conviction on his record from 10 years ago for theft of more than $10,000.
Shapiro is accused of having conversations via Snapchat with more than 100 children, according to prosecutors.
He exchanged explicit videos with four children — ages 10, 14 and 15 — last year, Conroy said.
The investigation began when it was discovered the 10-year-old was having conversations with a grown man, Conroy said.
Conroy said Shapiro knew the ages of the children because they told him.
Shapiro’s attorney, James Kelly, said the state failed to prove Shapiro is dangerous. Kelly questioned why authorities knew of his alleged offenses in November but did not charge or arrest him until Wednesday.
Conroy later explained that was because the investigation was ongoing.
Kelly said Shapiro has not had any further communications with any children since November. He said his client is stable, nonviolent and is part of the community.
Shapiro has been married 15 years, has a teenage child, a job of 15 years and, no other criminal history besides the theft conviction, Kelly said.
Shapiro is due in court Sept. 19. If convicted, he faces six to 30 years in prison.