Roodhouse man held on child pornography charges
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By Carmen Ensinger
A detention hearing was held on Monday, Aug. 26 for a Roodhouse man charged with eight counts of Possession of Child Pornography.
Henry A. Scheferkort, 60, will be spending his time in the Greene County Jail until the time of his trial after Greene County Circuit Judge Zachary Schmidt deemed Scheferkort to be a potential danger to the public.
Prior to the ruling, testimony was heard from Greene County Sheriff’s Deputy Clark Wallis who was the initial investigator on the case, which began with a report from the grandmother of a nine-year-old juvenile that Sheferkort was being inappropriate with the child. This report was made around Oct. 27, 2023.
According to Wallis, the Sheriff’s Department then contacted the mother of the child who agreed to let the child be interviewed by Child Advocacy Services in Jerseyville. She also agreed to let the child’s phone be forensically scanned by Greenfield Chief John Goode, who has the software to do this type of work.
The result of the interview with the juvenile and the items found on the phone let to the County obtaining a search warrant for Scheferkort’s residence in Roodhouse.
In executing this search warrant, they procured several computers and several guns, for which Scheferkort had no Fire Arm Identification Card (FOID) for.
Wallis said the computers were sent off to the Attorney General’s Office to be forensically searched.
“Chief Goode really doesn’t have the software to do computers,” Wallis said. “He has it to do the cell phones, but not the computers so we decided to send it off to the Attorney General’s office. They told us it would be a while before they could get to it as they had a number of cases before us.”
Greene County States Attorney Caleb Briscoe pointed out that it was a good thing the County executed the search warrant when they did because the next day Scheferkort’s house burned to the ground.
The Attorney General’s Office found numerous images of children under the age of 13 engaged in a variety of acts, depicting unclothed genitals, public area, buttocks or fully or partially developed breast of the child.
They also found several websites that Scheferkort had visited which also contained child pornography.
A warrant for Scheferkort’s arrest was issued on Aug. 19 of this year.
Scheferkort hired Charles Theivagt as his own private council who argued that he is not a danger to anyone, is currently living in Chapin with his sister, and needs to be free to help fund his defense.
Briscoe countered with the fact that while Scheferkort has no license, he still drives. Also, he has no FOID card, yet he still owned guns. In essence, Scheferkort doesn’t follow the rules – only the ones he wants to. Also, if he were to be out on house arrest, it would be impossible to monitor the sites he visits on a computer.
Possession of Child Pornography is a Class 2 felony, punishable by a term of 3 to 7 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections plus a $25,000 fine. It is one of the few offenses that is detainable under the Safety Act.
Scheferkort is due back in Greene County Circuit Court on Sept. 6 for arraignment.