Stillman Valley man to be sentenced Oct. 7 for possessing images of child sexual abuse

OREGON — The sentencing hearing for a Stillman Valley man who was found guilty in August of possessing images of children being sexually abused has been reset for Oct. 7.

Joshua Lake, 30, of Stillman Valley was found guilty Aug. 21 by an Ogle County jury following a two-day trial.

On Tuesday, Lake appeared in court with his attorney, William Schuck, and requested a 402 conference. Assistant State’s Attorney Matthew Leisten agreed to the conference.

A 402 conference is intended to be an open, informal process where attorneys and a judge discuss relevant information regarding the case and a potential outcome. Defendants are not present during the conference, but must agree to waive their presence before it is held.

When asked by Judge John Redington if he agreed to the conference, Lake replied, “Yeah”.

After the hearing was held, Redington changed Lake’s sentencing hearing to 9 a.m. Oct. 7. It had been originally scheduled for Oct. 17.

Lake was indicted in May 2021 on 10 counts of possessing and disseminating photos and videos of the alleged abuses in November 2018. Before the start of his trial, prosecutors dismissed seven of the counts, including two dissemination charges that alleged he shared the images.

That left three Class 2 felonies that charged Lake with possessing videos of children – all younger than 13 – engaged in sexual acts with adults and other children.

During the trial, Assistant State’s Attorney Allison Huntley told jurors that all of the videos were found through an investigation of Lake’s phone and a review of social media accounts.

She said the phone had “disgusting images on it” and she was sure it was Lake’s phone because “his name is all over it.”

Schuck disagreed, arguing that the phone with the videos on it did not belong to his client. He said anybody could set up a Facebook account and that criteria should not have been used to determine whose phone it was.

Schuck claimed the phone belonged to Lake’s older brother who he said left for Russia when charges were filed. He argued that prosecutors had no physical evidence linking Lake to the phone.

Huntley said Lake told Illinois State Police Sgt. Nathan Macklin that the phone belonged to him. She said the state had proven that Lake had downloaded the videos to his phone in three different places.

But Schuck said there was no recording of that conversation presented as evidence.

Huntley countered that social media and email accounts had Lake’s initials and birth year as identifiers.

She said a lack of DNA evidence was irrelevant to the case because the state did not have to prove he viewed the videos.

Lake had been in and out of custody in the Ogle County Jail since his arrest and been represented by several different attorneys.

In March 2022, he was determined to be unfit and ordered to undergo treatment. He was declared fit in August 2022 after Redington reviewed a court-ordered evaluation. Lake then failed to appear for a court hearing in October 2022 and was arrested in July 2023. He was released on a cash bond but again failed to appear for a hearing. He was remanded to the Ogle County Jail in December 2023, where he was held until the trial began.

According to court records, he declined a plea agreement offered by the state on Aug. 14 on four counts, including one for dissemination of child pornography, a Class X felony.

The seven-man, five-woman jury reached the verdict after deliberating 2 1/2 hours, finding Lake guilty on all three counts. Each of the counts is punishable by three to seven years in the Illinois Department of Corrections with two years mandatory supervised release and a fine of up to $100,000.