Man arrested in Algonquin police standoff was accused of violation tied to 2014 child sex trafficking case

The man arrested Wednesday following a nine-hour police standoff at the Holiday Inn Express in Algonquin did not face any charges in McHenry County as of Thursday evening.

The hours-long standoff at the 2595 Bunker Hill Drive hotel ended Wednesday with the arrest of 37-year-old LaBurron Jackson. The Chicago man was accused of violating the conditions of his prison release in a DuPage County child sex trafficking case.

Hotel guests Charles and Margaret Elmer of Denver, Colorado, were staying on the same floor as Jackson. The couple, in town to visit their son, left the hotel about 10 a.m., about an hour before the standoff started.

When they got back that night, the police had the scene blocked off, and the Elmers were told they would not be able to get in their room for the time being.

“It’s one of the things you don’t want to hear, especially when you’re ready to go back to the room,” Charles Elmer said.

The Elmers went to Target until they were allowed to return to the hotel.

Margaret Elmer was glad they were gone for most of the day.

“We’re lucky we missed everything,” she said.

Jackson temporarily was housed at the McHenry County Jail in Woodstock, where he faced no local charges. Officials transferred the man about 11:30 a.m. to another facility, which was not listed in the county’s online jail log.

It was unclear Thursday why Jackson might have been in the McHenry County area. Algonquin police are “looking into” potential charges against Jackson, although nothing had been authorized as of Thursday afternoon, Algonquin Deputy Police Chief Ryan Markham said.

Jackson recently served time in prison for a 2016 DuPage County conviction of involuntary servitude of a minor, court records show. He was serving his sentence at Lawrence Correctional Center on April 3, 2019, when he was released on mandatory supervised release – Illinois’s version of parole.

The Illinois Department of Corrections database listed Jackson as an “absconder” or fugitive as of Thursday evening.

Algonquin police learned of the warrant at 10:53 a.m. Wednesday when they responded to the hotel for a report of suspicious activity. That report came from a hotel clerk, who notified police after Jackson registered his room under his name and then tried to alter it, Markham said.

When officers tried to contact Jackson, he refused to leave the hotel room, where he was staying alone, Markham said.

Police evacuated the hotel and notified Algonquin-based Community School District 300 because of the hotel’s proximity to Jacobs High School.

The school was put under a “shelter-in-place,” district spokesperson Anthony McGinn said, and no one was able to exit or enter the building during that time. The school was dismissed at its normal time.

Police negotiated with Jackson for several hours before pumping an aerosol can of pepper spray into the man’s room, Markham said. Jackson was taken into custody at 8:12 p.m.

“Nothing was recovered,” Markham said Thursday. “He never actually stated he had a weapon.”

The McHenry County Sheriff’s Office assisted in Jackson’s arrest but deferred comment to the Algonquin Police Department.

Jackson’s DuPage County conviction stemmed from a 2014 sting operation headed by the Aurora Police Department and FBI, according to a news release from the time of Jackson’s sentencing.

An officer made arrangements on June 19, 2014, to meet two girls for a sexual encounter at a hotel in Aurora near Robert Morris College. The following day, the girls arrived at the hotel and met with the undercover officer in a room, according to the release. Jackson and another man had driven the girls to the hotel and waited in the parking lot after dropping them off, according to the release.

The men told the girls, later determined to be 15 years old, to have sex with the undercover officer for money and split the cash between themselves. Jackson and the other man also threatened to keep some of the girls’ personal belongings if they did not do as they were told, according to the release.

Both men pleaded guilty in 2016 to involuntary servitude of a minor and each was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Jackson was credited for any time that he already served before arriving at the Illinois Department of Corrections and was released from physical custody after serving about three years behind bars, records show.

Algonquin Police Department did not have reason to believe that Jackson was committing a similar offense to the 2016 allegations while he was at the Algonquin hotel, Markham said.