Former McHenry deputy admits abusing boy in Milwaukee hotel
A former McHenry County sheriff’s deputy and child pornography investigator pleaded guilty Friday to taking a minor under 12 to a Milwaukee hotel, sexually abusing him and later putting photos of the abuse online.
Gregory Pyle, 38, formerly of Crystal Lake and now of Crest Hill, faces 30 years to life in prison when sentenced April 14.
He was a 10-year veteran and sergeant with the sheriff’s department when he was charged in early 2012 with sexually assaulting a boy in December 2008. Officials from the U.S. District Attorney’s Office and the FBI announced the guilty plea.
Prosecutors said Pyle admitted that he drove from Crystal Lake to Wisconsin, stayed overnight in a Milwaukee hotel and engaged in sexual acts with the boy that were “sadistic, masochistic and violent.”
“The defendant produced images of the child engaged in these sexual acts and later distributed the images over the Internet,” prosecutors said in a news release.
Pyle was once the department’s lead investigator for child pornography, according to prosecutors.
Pyle was accused of sexually abusing the child on several occasions, including the Milwaukee trip to see a Marquette University basketball game, according to a federal complaint.
Pyle also faces 10 counts of predatory criminal sexual assault in McHenry County and is due in court there on Monday.
Those charges accuse him of committing sexual assault between September 2006 and September 2010.
A message left with Pyle’s defense attorney, John Donahue, was not immediately returned.
The charges against Pyle stemmed from an investigation by the Illinois State Police, McHenry County Sheriff’s Department and the Illinois Crimes Against Children Task Force.