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	Former Church Organist Gets 6 Months on Child Porn Charges By Art Barnum Chicago Tribune November 6, 2007 http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-stocker_nov06,1,2973386.story An organist who worked at nine DuPage County Catholic churches over the last two decades was sentenced Monday to 6months in DuPage County Jail after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography. Richard Stocker, 61, of Glendale Heights, also was ordered by Judge George Bakalis to have no contact with anyone under 18 during a 36-month probation and to register as a child sex offender. Wheaton police charged Stocker on the porn charges in 2005 after investigating sex abuse charges, authorities said. A former St. Francis High School student said that during the 1970s, Stocker sexually abused the sophomore when Stocker was employed in the Wheaton school's theater program. After Stocker's arrest, a former student at St. Matthew's Catholic Church in Glendale Heights testified that Stocker had fondled him around 1970. The statute of limitations had expired on the alleged crimes involving those two youths. Wheaton Detective David Zdan testified Monday that during those investigations, he asked to see Stocker's home computer. A forensic investigation indicated that the computer contained more than 100,000 pornographic images, and Zdan said police viewed about 2,000, of which 200 were of children. Stocker said he bought the images from a Russian Web site, which claimed that none of the images was of children. Assistant State's Atty. Alex McGimpsey said that the Joliet diocese produced a list with the nine churches where Stocker had played the organ since 1985, and that none of the churches could produce any complaints about the defendant. Contact: abarnum@tribune.com
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