Ingleside man, registered sex offender, charged with child pornography

An Ingleside man who is a registered sex offender has been charged with child pornography after using an online relationship to obtain nude photos from a 12-year-old girl, police said in a news release.

On Friday, Lake County sheriff's detectives and the Sheriff's Warrants Team served an arrest warrant on Joshua S. Hoffman, 29, of the 35700 block of North Ash Street.

Earlier this month, detectives became aware that Hoffman was engaged in inappropriate electronic conversations with the girl from Edwardsville, Illinois. During these conversations, Hoffman solicited and received nude images from the child, police said.

The Edwardsville Police Department, Lake County sheriff's office, Madison County state's attorney's office, and Lake County state's attorney's office collaborated on the investigation.

Madison County issued an arrest warrant for Hoffman on Nov. 12 for two counts of child pornography and one of grooming. A Madison County judge set the bail on the warrant at $500,000. Lake County authorities obtained a search warrant Hoffman's residence. Both were executed Friday, and electronics and numerous controlled substances were seized, police said.

Lake County filed charges of possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver and two counts of possession of a controlled substance.

In December 2016, Hoffman pleaded guilty to one felony count of possession of child pornography and received a sentence of 24 months of probation and was required to register as a sex offender. He had spent almost a year in jail after his arrest.

At that time of his arrest on a warrant by the sheriff's cybercrimes unit, Hoffman was found to have hundreds of child pornography videos, numerous controlled substances and a firearm, police said. Drug and firearm charges were dropped as part of a plea deal.