Updated Aug. 14, 2:00 p.m.
A former part-time, non-faculty employee of Lyons Township High School who lives in LaGrange Park pleaded guilty on Aug. 2 to one count of electronically distributing more than 100 images of child pornography from his personal computer.
Nathan Arger, 33, who had been under home confinement after posting bond shortly after his arrest by the FBI on Sept. 22, 2011, was taken into custody by federal authorities after changing his not guilty plea at a hearing in front of Judge Amy J. St. Eve in U.S. District Court in Chicago.
He is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago, awaiting a sentencing hearing on Nov. 2.
According to a plea agreement between U.S. Attorney Gary Shapiro and Arger and his attorney, Arger could face a sentence of almost 16 years in prison, based on federal sentencing guidelines. The plea agreement states that the guidelines indicate a sentence of between 151 and 188 months, based on the charge to which Arger pleaded guilty.
The sentencing guidelines are advisory, and the agreement notes that the judge could sentence Arger to as little as five years in prison, which is the mandatory minimum for the charge against him. Arger could also be fined up to $250,000.
Lyons Township High School placed Arger on unpaid administrative leave from his part-time job with the school’s radio and television stations at the time of his arrest. The FBI reported at the time of his arrest that Arger was not suspected of any illegal activity involving LTHS students or the school’s technology equipment.
The plea agreement gives more detail about the scale of Arger’s collection of child pornography, which he kept on a desktop computer, a laptop computer and two hard drives.
In all, Arger possessed 66,895 images and 2,943 videos of child pornography, according to the plea agreement.
No later than 2010, according to the plea agreement, Arger began using file-sharing software to trade child pornography with others. On July 28, 2011, an undercover FBI agent using the screen name of one of Arger’s file-sharing network “friends” downloaded about 700 images and 12 videos of child porn from Arger’s computer.
Two months later, FBI agents raided Arger’s home, seized his computers and hard drives and arrested him. In October 2011, Arger was indicted by a federal grand jury and charged with possessing child pornography and distributing child pornography.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges on Nov. 2, 2011. As part of the plea deal entered Aug. 2, prosecutors dropped the possession charge in exchange for Arger pleading guilty to distributing the images.
