Man first to be convicted under new law

A federal jury convicted a Willowbrook man Tuesday of one count of failing to register as a sex offender under the Adam Walsh Act, the first conviction of its kind in Illinois since the law was passed in 2006, prosecutors said.

Daniel Rappe, 47, was also convicted of three counts of obstruction for instructing an accomplice by phone to erase his computers at his home because he feared federal authorities were on the way to seize them to look for child pornography.

In fact they were, but when investigators arrived, the computers had been wiped totally clean, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Rachel Cannon, who prosecuted the case with Christopher McFadden.

Rappe's accomplice, Kim Randall, has pleaded guilty to helping Rappe erase the computers and will be sentenced at a later date. She testified against him at trial.

Rappe has two prior convictions for sexually assaulting children, and one state conviction for failing to register as a sex offender, said Cannon.

The Walsh Act was designed with people like Rappe in mind, who prosecutors said tried to avoid registration by registering cars at fake addresses and researching the law extensively.

Rappe will be sentenced Sept. 2 at 11:30 a.m. He faces maximum sentences of five years in prison on the obstruction counts and 10 years on the failure to register count, although typically sentences are administered concurrently.

Rappe's attorney, Gregory T. Mitchell, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.