DeKalb pastor pleads guilty to disseminating child porn in 2015, sentenced to 14 years in prison

Corey Butler (right) and his new attorney Gene Ognibene appear in front of Judge Robbin Stuckert at the DeKalb County Courthouse Wednesday during a pretrial hearing. Butler is expected to stand trial for possession of child pornography and dissemination of child pornography.

DeKALB – Nearly eight years after he was charged with disseminating child pornography, three lawyers and scrapped trial dates later, DeKalb pastor Corey D. Butler will spend more than a decade in prison after he pleaded guilty Wednesday in front of a DeKalb County judge.

Butler, now 42, of the 1600 block of Kent Place in DeKalb, was indicted on April 29, 2015, with dissemination of child pornography, a class X felony, DeKalb County court records show.

Circuit Court Judge Marcy Buick accepted Butler’s plea Wednesday morning and in exchange sentenced him to 14 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. He could have faced a maximum sentence of 30 years. Butler must serve three years to life mandatory supervised release, according to a news release from the Illinois Attorney General’s office. Butler also is required to register as a sex offender.

Eugene Ognibene, Butler’s Clarendon Hills-based defense attorney who came onto the case in late 2019, did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Butler is listed as pastor of the Jesus is the Way Christian Center in DeKalb as of Wednesday. He has been free since posting $1,000 bail in April 2015, after now retired DeKalb County Judge Robbin Stuckert reduced his bond from $101,500 to $10,000, records show.

Butler, a Northern Illinois University graduate, also founded and operates an NIU campus ministries group, according to the church’s website.

Court proceedings for the case over the years have been fraught with delays and challenges by Butler’s defense attorney’s as to whether he was fit to stand trial, records show. Butler’s lawyers attempted to continue a trial scheduled in April 15, 2021, though the motion was denied, records show. In August 2019, Butler told the court he couldn’t afford to take a $1,000 fitness evaluation he had requested months prior.

Police said in court records officers with the Illinois Crimes Against Children Task Force learned child pornography was being distributed from a computer at Butler’s address between Feb. 28 and March 2, 2015.

Butler was arrested in April 2015 after a police search of his home uncovered what police said were images of child pornography on a computer in his bedroom, court records state. Though he’d posted bail shortly after his arrest, he’d been barred from contact with minors as a condition of his release. He was also placed on electronic home monitoring.

During questioning by DeKalb police, Butler admitted possessing the material and he allowed others to access, view and download it, according to court records. Butler since had blamed pop-up ads on his computer for the images. In 2015, his attorney at the time, Tom Benno, said Butler admitted to visiting a porn site.

The case was prosecuted jointly by the DeKalb County State’s Attorney’s Office and the Illinois Attorney General’s Office through its Illinois Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force. The task force investigates child exploitation crimes and trains law enforcement agencies, according to the office.

“Collaboration between Attorney General Raoul’s office and local authorities is crucial to investigating and prosecuting these heinous crimes,” said DeKalb County State’s Attorney Rick Amato in a news release. “I would like to thank the Orland Park Police Department, the Sycamore Police Department, and the DeKalb Police Department for their steadfast work to hold child predators accountable.”

The attorney general’s office also alleged that Butler had disseminated the child pornography by making it available to download over peer-to-peer file sharing network online.

“Child pornography is an abhorrent crime that exploits innocent children and their families each time an image is downloaded or shared,” Raoul said. “This sentencing highlights the vital efforts of my Crimes Against Children Task Force, which works tirelessly to identify and track down individuals who assault and exploit children. I will continue to partner with law enforcement and state’s attorneys throughout Illinois to ensure justice for victims.”

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