St. Charles man pleads guilty to intimidation charges

A 40-year-old St. Charles man accused of making pornographic movies with two minor girls recently pleaded guilty to intimidation charges and was sentenced to 30 months of specialized probation.

Kane County prosecutors dropped child pornography and criminal sexual assault charges against Keith McElroy, 40, of the 3500 block of Voltaire Lane, in exchange for the guilty plea.

McElroy, who was been free on bond since being charged in spring 2009, received credit for a week spent in jail.

He does not have to register as a sex offender, but cannot own a smartphone, computer, use the Internet for anything other than email, and is not allowed to have unsupervised contact with people younger than 18.

In addition to not contacting the two victims, he cannot be within 500 feet of a school, day care center, park, playground, pool, arcade, skating rink or “any other place where children regularly congregate,” according to court records.

Kane County Judge Allen Anderson accepted the plea and could sentence McElroy up to 10 years in prison if he violates his probation, which ends in September 2014. The case was headed for trial this month.

McElroy was initially charged in spring 2009 with offering two girls $150 each in November 2007 to make a pornographic movie and have their photos taken.

The girls were 16 at the time.

McElroy pleaded guilty to a charge of felony intimidation that he threatened to hurt himself if the two victims did not lie to investigators about the case.

At the time of McElroy’s arrest, defense attorney D.J. Tegeler said his client was innocent and that the girls had recanted their stories.

Tegeler was unavailable for comment Wednesday.

Kane County Assistant State’s Attorney Scott Schwertley also declined to comment on the case.