Former Church Volunteer Indicted in Alleged Child Sex Assault

By George Houde
Chicago Tribune
March 6, 2014

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/suburbs/barrington_area/chi-former-church-volunteer-indicted-in-alleged-child-sex-assault-20140306,0,1845698.story

Robert Sobczak, a former volunteer at Willow Creek Community Church, was charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse. (Cook County Sheriff's Office photo)

A former Willow Creek Church volunteer who admitted to sexually abusing a boy at the church was indicted today in a separate alleged child sexual assault.

Robert Sobczak, 20, is accused of criminal sexual assault of a teenage relative who has a development disability, according to court records. Sobczak is accused of forcing the boy to perform a sex act at a home in Schaumburg where the two were attending a birthday party.

The alleged assault occurred in March 2013, the month after an investigation began into Sobczak’s abuse of a boy at the church but before Sobczak was charged in that abuse.

In that case, Sobczak eventually pleaded guilty to criminal sexual abuse of the 8-year-old, who was in a church program for children with special needs. Sobczak was a volunteer in that program. He received two years of probation in that case, but was placed back in custody in lieu of a $500,000 bond when he was rearrested in the Schaumburg case last month.

The latest allegation came to light at that time, when Sobczak allegedly confessed to another relative, who told a third relative, who called police, according to court documents.

Court documents indicated Sobczak was questioned by police about the allegation on Feb. 10 while Sobczak was staying at a motel in Schaumburg, though he is listed on the state’s sex offender registry as living in Niles.

The parents of the boy Sobczak abused at the church has sued the church and Sobczak, saying Willow Creek officials were negligent in failing to protect their son from the abuse. Another family has also sued the church and Sobczak, claiming their son was molested by Sobczak at the church over a period of about a year in 2012, but Sobczak has not been charged in connection to those claims.

Church officials have said that they immediately removed Sobczak, retrained volunteers and added more surveillance cameras at the church and have cooperated with authorities.