Jeremy Hylka Can't Use Social Media Anymore: Judge

Joliet IL

21 October, 2021

10:00 PM

Description

JOLIET, IL — A Will County judge has modified the bond conditions for 44-year-old New Lenox resident Jeremy Hylka so that the former Joliet Catholic Academy teacher cannot access social media websites or applications while his five felony charges are awaiting trial. Will County Judge Ken Zelazo also notified Hylka that he is to have no unsupervised contact with any children excluding his own. "As to contact with his own children," the judge's order states, "the defendant is to abide by any orders of the family court." Hylka faces a total of five criminal charges from Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow in connection with Hylka's April 27 visit to the Joliet McDonald's restaurant on West Jefferson Street. According to prosecutors, Hylka went to the fast-food restaurant expecting to meet an underage boy for the purposes of a sexual encounter back at Hylka's parked car. The criminal charges against Hylka are: traveling to meet a child, indecent solicitation of a child, grooming, another charge of indecent solicitation of a child and a charge of solicitation to meet a child. After his arrest, the Diocese of Joliet fired Hylka as a teacher at St. Joseph Catholic Grade School in Lockport. He was teaching there after leaving Joliet Catholic in the summer of 2020. Hylka chose to hire JohnPaul Ivec, a Plainfield private practice attorney who operates a law office on Caton Farm Road. Ivec filed a motion last week challenging one of the five charges against his client. Ivec argues the charge of grooming should be dismissed because "the statute is unconstitutionally vague as it applies to the facts in the defendant's case in that it does not provide any definition for child's parent or guardian and does not offer any instructions as to what this element means in the case of an adult pretending to be a child." According to Ivec's filing, "from a plain reading of the statute, as applied to the facts of our case, Shane Divis, an adult who was pretending to be a child, is his own guardian and would have knowledge of any arranged meeting." Lastly, Ivec maintained "there does not exist a set of facts by which the State can prove this element when an adult knowingly pretends to be a fictitious minor in that the adult is his or her own guardian and would have knowledge of any arranged meeting." As for the other four felony charges, Ivec has not asked Will County's judges to dismiss any of those particular counts against his client, just the grooming offense. Joliet police held a news conference April 30 to discuss their criminal investigation of Jeremy Hylka, who is charged with traveling to meet a child as well as grooming. John Ferak/Joliet Patch