Ex-Lake in the Hills man pleads guilty to obstruction after being accused of abducting his child

A former Lake in the Hills father accused of kidnapping his then 5-year-old daughter from an Illinois Department of Children and Family Services office in Woodstock pleaded guilty Monday to obstructing justice.

Jeffrey S. Cook, 58, was sentenced to one year conditional discharge and ordered to complete a parenting course before the year is up, a sentencing order filed in McHenry County court said.

Cook, who had been set to go to trial Monday, received credit for two days spent in the county jail after his arrest with the child’s mother Jessica L. Walsh, 31.

Cook and Walsh, who now live in Elmhurst, were charged with child abduction, while Cook was also charged with obstructing justice, court records show. Walsh’s case is pending and she is due in court Sept. 10, records show. The abduction charge against Cook was dropped in exchange for his plea.

In May 2024, Cook, Walsh and their daughter became the focus of an endangered missing person alert, according to a news release issued by Woodstock police at the time. Days later, the child was found safe with Cook and Walsh at a relative’s Lake in the Hills home. The child was placed in protective custody and the couple was arrested.

The ordeal began on May 23, when DCFS case workers went to Cook’s and Walsh’s home in response to a report of abuse and neglect, prosecutors said at a detention hearing after the couple’s arrests. According to a criminal complaint, DCFS “intended to take protective custody” of the child that day.

However, the couple did not let caseworkers see the child or take her into custody, authorities said. The following day, DCFS alerted the couple that the child welfare agency had a warrant for the child, prompting the couple to take the child to the DCFS office in Woodstock, where caseworkers wanted to interview her without her parents present, authorities said.

The couple “became uncooperative,” would not allow the interview to take place and fled, prompting the statewide alert for the child, Assistant State’s Attorney Anthony Marin said. The couple fled to southern Illinois, authorities said.

Detectives eventually made phone contact with Cook, but he “was uncooperative in returning the child.”

The couple eventually went to the relative’s Lake in the Hills home, where they were found hiding with the child, police said.

During the initial detention hearing where Cook and Walsh were released from jail pretrial, Assistant Public Defender David Giesinger said the child was not abducted. Noting they are the child’s biological parents, Giesinger said the day police were looking for them was the Friday of Memorial Day weekend and they had a planned trip and drove to southern Illinois.

The defense attorney also said that when the couple went to the Woodstock DCFS office, Cook waited outside, unaware of the discussion over whether to allow caseworkers to interview the child.