Elgin man charged with possessing, disseminating child pornography

An Elgin man who authorities say admitted to having "a few hundred" images of child pornography in his possession was ordered held on $100,000 bail Tuesday.

Irak Martinez-Hernandez, 32, is charged with possession of child pornography and dissemination of child pornography containing images of children younger than 13. If convicted of the most serious offense, he faces up to 30 years in prison.

Cook County Judge Ellen Mandeltort also ordered Martinez-Hernandez have no contact with anyone younger than 18 and prohibited him from accessing the internet or using a cellphone.

According to prosecutors, on March 29, 2021, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a tip about someone uploading and sharing a file of suspected child pornography on an instant messaging and digital distribution platform. That platform provided information about the account, including the IP address in Elgin, said Assistant Cook County State's Attorney Aldina Vulic.

Elgin detectives subsequently linked Martinez-Hernandez to the account as well as an email address and an Amazon account containing a profile picture that showed part of his face, Vulic said. After obtaining a search warrant for the account, police discovered two additional files of child pornography as well as chat messages between the defendant's account and another user, Vulic said. The defendant and the other user "discussed sharing child pornography and even made plans to have one travel to the other to view child pornography together," she said.

Police obtained search warrants to examine the defendant's laptop, cellphones and storage devices on which they found "nearly 400 images of child sexual exploitation material," Vulic said.

Martinez-Hernandez next appears in court on July 22.