Former Wheaton College professor to be sentenced for third time in child porn case
A former Wheaton College professor, convicted in 2013 of child pornography charges, again faces three to seven years in prison after admitting Thursday that he violated terms of his probation.
Donald Ratcliff, 65, was charged in March 2012 after Carol Stream police found more than 500 images of child pornography on at least three of his seven home computers and three DVDs containing videos.
He pleaded guilty to the aggravated child pornography charge in August 2013 and was sentenced to 42 months in prison.
A short time later, Judge John Kinsella reduced the sentence to 180 days in jail and four years of sex-offender probation, which prohibited Ratcliff from accessing the internet without monitoring software.
On March 18, Ratcliff, who was still in outpatient sex-offender counseling, petitioned the DuPage County probation department to allow him to use a computer outfitted with monitoring software. He received his computer on March 28.
Prosecutors allege that on April 23, Ratcliff called his probation officer and reported the "possible misuse of his computer,"
Prosecutors allege the monitoring software would show that in the early morning hours of April 23 Ratcliff watched, edited to improve the visual quality and burned a copy of the 1954 film "Garden of Eden" which, according to IMDB.com, is about a mother and young daughter who flee her abusive husband and take shelter in a nudist colony.
When asked if he understood what he was admitting to, Ratcliff replied "Yes, your honor."
Assistant State's Attorney Mike Pawl said Ratcliff admitted to watching the movie for sexual gratification and said he chose the film, hoping if probation officials were alerted by the monitoring software that they would think the website featuring the film was a religious site.
On May 18, Kinsella ordered Ratcliff back to jail and held on $150,000 bail, which was revoked Thursday.
Ratcliff will appear before Kinsella again on July 6 at which time a new sentencing hearing will be scheduled.