
Kane County Chronicle
Saturday, April 25, 2009
By KATE THAYER
Court overturns STC man's conviction
ELGIN – A St. Charles
man’s child pornography conviction was overturned by the 2nd District Appellate
Court on the grounds the police search in the case wasn’t just.
Robert Prinzing, now 48, was arrested in December 2004, and convicted in April
2007 on possession of child pornography charges by Circuit Judge Timothy
Sheldon. Prinzing was later sentenced to 21⁄2 years probation and ordered to
register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Prosecutors said Prinzing had multiple pornographic images depicting children
on his computer, along with memberships to pornographic Web sites. Prinzing
denied the images were pornographic.
This week the Appellate Court handed down a ruling, sending the case back to
Kane County.
The court said the search warrant allowing police to search and seize
Prinzing’s computer was obtained illegally.
Prinzing’s attorney, (
Kathleen Colton)
while she fought the charges, had maintained Sheriff’s police used “trickery
and deceit” to obtain the search because investigators told Prinzing they were
conducting a credit card fraud investigation.
Sheldon didn’t find the search to be illegal, but the high court disagreed. The
case now could be re-tried in Kane County.