Tim O'Connell, 36, Faces New Charges Of Child Pornography In Addition To Sex Assault Case

PALOS HILLS, IL—A Palos Hills man already facing three felony criminal sexual assault charges has been indicted by a grand jury for possession of child pornography on Sept. 1, according to court information.

Timothy O’Connell, 36, was arrested in May after a Michigan woman accused him of drugging and raping her after they met at a Slaughter To Prevail concert on April 20 at the Aragon Ballroom.

Prosecutors said the woman has no memory of the rest of the evening after O’Connell purportedly bought her a drink at the concert, which she believes was laced with a date rape drug. O’Connell appears on security video carrying the barely conscious woman out of the North Side venue and placing her into a car driven by a friend. The woman was taken back to another friend’s Palos Hills condo, where the alleged sexual assault occurred.

Cook County Sheriff’s Police took over the investigation from Palos Hills police to avoid a potential conflict of interest because O’Connell’s mother is a Palos Hills alderman. Upon O’Connell’s initial arrest in May, sheriff’s police extracted six videos they claim O’Connell had recorded of himself sexually assaulting the limp, unconscious woman.

Additional evidence was recovered in a folder O’Connell had in his phone entitled “Women Drugged and Raped,” which sheriff’s police said contained many pornographic videos of women apparently unconscious being assaulted by men. Law enforcement also recovered child sexual assault material from O’Connell’s phone depicting naked children, according to court documents obtained by Patch.

Cook County Judge John Gallagher ordered O’Connell detained at Cook County Jail in July after two prior attempts to detain him were denied by another judge. Prosecutors called O’Connell a “danger to every woman in the community.” At the time, O’Connell was on electronic monitoring with two days of unlimited movement.

A grand jury returned an indictment on Sept. 1, in which O’Connell was charged with 10 counts of possession of child pornography. O’Connell is to appear on the new CSAM charges Sept. 15 at the Bridgeview Courthouse. He is due back in court on the sex assault charges a few weeks later on Sept. 22, also at Bridgeview.