The Forest Park Public Library was the center of an FBI sting, Aug. 24, that nabbed a 45-year-old Lansing man who traveled to Forest Park to have sex with a person he thought was a 14-year-old girl.
FBI agents, working with the Innocent Images Task Force, arrested Martin N. Pazdzuira, a registered sex offender living at 18525 Stony Island in Lansing, after he emailed images of his genitals to an agent posing as a 14-year-old girl named Emily. Using the Internet alias “redone2150,” Pazdzuira posed online as a 16-year-old boy named “Marty.”
The sting began after a Cook County Sheriff’s Correctional officer, who knew Pazdzuira socially, observed photos of what appeared to be naked underaged girls on the man’s cellphone. Pazdziura allegedly told the officer that he had joined an Internet chat room to meet girls, whom he said were 16, 17 and 18.
On Aug. 24, “Marty” texted the agent posting as “Emily” that he would take the train and meet her in Forest Park after school. He proposed that they take the train together to a hotel room in Hammond, Ind. “I meet u at the library,” Pazdzuira texted. “It not tat [sic] far the train station.”
Agents arrested him when he arrived in Forest Park.
According to the online Illinois Sex Offender Registry, Pazdzuira was convicted of Aggravated Criminal Sexual Abuse in 1995 and Possession of Child Pornography in 2005.
Pazdzuira appeared Monday before Judge Sidney I. Schenkier in Chicago and ordered held without bond. If convicted of felony charges, he faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years to life in prison.
The FBI said anyone recognizing Pazdzuira or having any information relevant to the investigation is urged to call the Chicago FBI at 312-421-6700.
