JOLIET, IL – At the news conference held at the police station on Friday at 4 p.m., Joliet Police Lt. Joe Egizio that his criminal police do not know the whereabouts of the defendant Jeremy Hylka, but Egizio is confident that the Joliet diocese is Catholic. The teacher will be in custody “in the near future”.
“He is not in custody,” Egizio told reporters.
On Thursday, Joliet police received an arrest warrant for Hylka for traveling to meet a child and for caregiving, both crimes. Hylka’s bail is $ 100,000, so he must leave 10 percent to get out of Will County Jail, the lieutenant who oversees the Joliet Police Department’s criminal investigation told everyone.
During Friday’s press conference, a reporter asked Egizio if Hylka is currently being admitted to a hospital in New Lenox, which is home to the Silver Cross Hospital.
Egizio replied by saying, “I don’t know.”
Joliet Police Chief Joe Egizio speaks to reporters at Friday’s news conference about her criminal investigation into Jeremy Hylka, who is charged with traveling to a child and caring for John Ferak / Patch
Joliet police said the video, which had been circulating on social media in the past few days, showed that Hylka was trying to meet someone who Hylka believed was 15 years old in order to engage in sexual activity .
Hylka went to McDonald’s in Joliet and expected to meet a 15-year-old boy for oral sex in Hylka’s vehicle, according to the Save Our S Siblings group.
“Our cooperating witness pretended to be 15 years old but is actually 19 years old,” Joliet’s longtime police officer Shawn Filipiak told reporters at the press conference.
Since Hylka believed the teenager he was dating was 15 years old, “the legal requirement was met,” Filipiak said.
Filipiak and Egizio told reporters that the person responsible for capturing Hylka’s Snapchat videos is in no way acting for the Joliet police force.
“Absolutely not,” remarked Egizio. “I’ve never met this person in my entire life.”
The group in charge of filming Hylka enters Joliet McDonald’s on West Jefferson Street and films the former Joliet Catholic Academy theology teacher as he ran out of business and tried to hide his face with his shirt, acting independently from law enforcement, said Egizio.
Joliet police said the group involved in filming Hylka were known as Save Our Sicians.
“It’s an independent group. They don’t have a law enforcement agency,” said Egizio.
However, the group gave Joliet police access to their videos, and Joliet police later independently verified the Hylka videos involved, Egizio told reporters on Friday.
During the press conference, a reporter asked Joliet police whether the person making the video was harassing Hylka and whether it would be problematic for ongoing law enforcement to repeatedly refer to Hylka as a child pedophile on the video.
In the video, the Save Our Sughters cameraman repeatedly yells, “Hey, we have a pedophile! We have a pedophile on the run! Pedophile on the run! Are we going to get you, pedophile?”
Shawn Filipiak, police officer at Joliet, talks about the investigation against Jeremy Hylka. John Ferak / Patch
Filipiak responded to the question by stating that this was not a problem for the Will County Attorney’s Office as the prosecutor agreed to file two criminal charges against Hylka.
“Obviously she didn’t mind,” Filipiak said.
A Chicago television reporter asked a question about a statement from Hylka’s former employer, Joliet Catholic Academy.
The statement noted that in June 2020, JCA informed the Joliet police “of online allegations” relating to Hylka and that Hylka resigned from JCA.
That current school year, Hylka was hired to teach at St. Joseph Catholic School in Lockport.
The Diocese of Joliet announced that he has been fired from all positions related to the Diocese due to the incident this week that led to the criminal charges.
The group, which posted an 18-minute video on YouTube entitled “Jeremy Hylka Exposed,” informed those watching the video that it was a “Joliet teacher caught in the act.” when he was trying to meet an underage child and do sexual things with him. ” he, there have been several times in his career where similar things have been brought up and we need him away! We can no longer let people like him go around doing things like that and think it’s okay !!!!
“That is why we founded this organization SaveOurS Geschwister!”
Filipiak said last summer’s allegations that Joliet Catholic was involved in were “from third parties” and included “unsubstantiated allegations made by witnesses unknown at the time.”
In addition to the diocese, the Joliet Weather Center also parted ways with Hylka this week.
Welcome to the Joliet Weather Center. Meet our Lead Forecaster and Director Jeremy Hylka. Jeremy founded the JWC in …
Posted by Joliet Weather Center on Thursday 7th Nov 2019
When the press conference ended on Friday, Lt. Egizio back on the podium.
He wanted everyone to know that he was impressed with how quickly the criminal investigation against Hylka came about that week.
During the press conference, alongside Egizio Joliet’s deputy chief for criminal investigations, Carlos Matlock, and Filipiak stood.
On Friday, Joliet Police held their first press conference in several years at the downtown police station.
Joliet Police did not hold press conferences on criminal matters during Al Roechner’s tenure, who served as chief from August 2018 to January.
Joliet made Dawn Malec new boss in January, replacing three of Roechner’s four deputy bosses.
“Whenever a child is a victim or a child is an intended victim, my investigative department drops what they are doing, banding together and doing the job,” Egizio said, referring to the Hylka investigation.
In addition to Filipiak, Egizio also wanted to thank colleagues in the Joliet Police Department, Don McKinney, Dave Jackson, Michael Cagle, Paul Rodriguez and Brad McKeon.
“Putting this together in such a short time is very impressive from a law enforcement perspective,” Egizio told reporters. “It is the teamwork these detectives put in that resulted in the two crimes being reported to us within two days of the incident being reported. Therefore, I would like to publicly commend the men and women of the investigative department of the Joliet Police Department .
“And yes, we encourage all victims of this type of behavior from anyone in our community to call the Joliet Police Department. Our general investigation line is 815-724-3020.”
Joliet Police held a press conference Friday to discuss the status of their criminal investigation against Jeremy Hylka, who is charged with traveling to meet and care for a child. John Ferak / Patch
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