Teh One Who Knocks
05-19-2011, 01:35 PM
By Steve Schmadeke - Chocago Tribune reporter
A Crest Hill man who told police he used child pornography as well as some 1,700 photos of dismembered women to keep himself from killing his wife and two young daughters was ordered held on $1 million bail Wednesday.
Joshua Price, 26, was arrested in March after leaving a flash drive with child pornography on it at a Joliet Junior College computer lab. His bail was originally set at $250,000.
Police searching the computers seized from Price’s apartment later found more child pornography as well as images of dismembered women.
Detective Joseph Fazio of the Will County sheriff’s office testified Wednesday that Price told him he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after his military service in the Middle East and that the child pornography was “the only thing that kept him from killing his wife and children.”
After hearing that, Judge Edward Burmila abruptly halted the hearing –- at which prosecutors sought to increase Price’s bail and his defense attorney sought to reduce it -– and increased Price’s bail to $1 million.
Fazio found about 1,700 images of dismembered women on Price’s computers after the Crest Hill man’s arrest, according to a court filing. If the images are fake, the “level of staging appears very sophisticated,” prosecutors say in the filing.
Prosecutors believe Price was asking for help in keeping his wife safe and they sought a higher bail to accomplish that, saying Price had failed to seek counseling at a VA hospital to treat his stress disorder.
“Just as Odysseus ordered his men to lash him to the mast and not to release him as they encountered the Sirens, the defendant has attempted to insure the safety of his wife and children by revealing the previously hidden danger that he currently poses to them,” Assistant State’s Attorney John Connor wrote in the filing.
The filing says Price’s two children are aged 6 and 4, but an order of protection taken out against Price by his wife shortly after his arrest says the children are 4 and 2.
Price is charged with three counts of aggravated child pornography. Prosecutors had sought to increase his bail to $500,000.
A Crest Hill man who told police he used child pornography as well as some 1,700 photos of dismembered women to keep himself from killing his wife and two young daughters was ordered held on $1 million bail Wednesday.
Joshua Price, 26, was arrested in March after leaving a flash drive with child pornography on it at a Joliet Junior College computer lab. His bail was originally set at $250,000.
Police searching the computers seized from Price’s apartment later found more child pornography as well as images of dismembered women.
Detective Joseph Fazio of the Will County sheriff’s office testified Wednesday that Price told him he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after his military service in the Middle East and that the child pornography was “the only thing that kept him from killing his wife and children.”
After hearing that, Judge Edward Burmila abruptly halted the hearing –- at which prosecutors sought to increase Price’s bail and his defense attorney sought to reduce it -– and increased Price’s bail to $1 million.
Fazio found about 1,700 images of dismembered women on Price’s computers after the Crest Hill man’s arrest, according to a court filing. If the images are fake, the “level of staging appears very sophisticated,” prosecutors say in the filing.
Prosecutors believe Price was asking for help in keeping his wife safe and they sought a higher bail to accomplish that, saying Price had failed to seek counseling at a VA hospital to treat his stress disorder.
“Just as Odysseus ordered his men to lash him to the mast and not to release him as they encountered the Sirens, the defendant has attempted to insure the safety of his wife and children by revealing the previously hidden danger that he currently poses to them,” Assistant State’s Attorney John Connor wrote in the filing.
The filing says Price’s two children are aged 6 and 4, but an order of protection taken out against Price by his wife shortly after his arrest says the children are 4 and 2.
Price is charged with three counts of aggravated child pornography. Prosecutors had sought to increase his bail to $500,000.