Naperville man arrested for child porn

A Naperville photographer has been charged with four counts of possession of child pornography, police said Tuesday.

Authorities spent more than a year investigating Thomas S. Schmitz, 49, of 462 Valley Drive, Naperville, who is now being held at the DuPage County jail.

Schmitz, a self-employed photographer with Studio 211, is not accused of creating the pornographic images.

"It appears he was only downloading and possessing child pornography," Cmdr. Dave Hoffman said. "There was no indication he was manufacturing any."

Police first were tipped off to the images by an anonymous report to Crime Stoppers on Jan. 24, 2007, when workers were in Schmitz's apartment making repairs after a fire.

A week later, the Naperville Police Department Internet Crimes Unit, Illinois Attorney General's Office Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the United States Postal Inspectors office executed a search warrant on Schmitz's home.

Investigators seized computer hard drives, digital media and photographs.

Hoffman said law enforcement officials underwent an "intensive investigation" that lasted more than a year due to the "sheer volume of images that needed to be reviewed."

Investigators sorted through several hundred thousand images, of which about 1,000 were considered objectionable, according to Hoffman.

The DuPage County state's attorney's office authorized the felony charges and Schmitz was arrested without incident on Friday at his apartment.

He is being held at the DuPage County jail on $100,000 bond. He is scheduled to appear in court again June 23.