College employee charged with grooming and soliciting teens for explicit material
An employee at the College of Lake County is charged with grooming and solicitation of a child connected to work he does at Wauconda High School, police said Friday.
Adam Faulkner, 42, is charged with two counts of solicitation of child sex abuse material, two counts of grooming and two counts of indecent solicitation of a child.
Wauconda Police, the Lake County Sheriff's Office, Lake County K9 electronic detection dog Enzo, and the Island Lake Police Department executed a search warrant on Faulker's home on Thursday. Police noted some electronic devices are very small, and specially trained K9s can help find them.
Police said they found evidence indicating Faulkner had groomed and indecently solicited two girls at Wauconda High School.
Wauconda police said students at Wauconda High School came forward to report Faulkner, who works for the College of Lake County and is assigned to Wauconda High School as a college and career navigator.
"Right now, what we're able to show is that he had solicited these two females for videos and photos in exchange for monetary gifts," said Wauconda Police Sgt. Heather Cognac. "We've interviewed multiple students, and so far we're looking at two victims, with the potential for more."
Police said they expect Faulkner likely will face more charges.
"You're dealing with people that can't really advocate for themselves sometimes, and so these are the crimes that we really want to make sure that we can aggressively investigate," Cognac said.
Police began investigating Faulkner on April 16, and the college said he was immediately put on administrative leave. They said Faulkner has not been on college or school district property since April 16, and was instructed not to communicate with or have any contact with any CLC or high school students.
The College of Lake County said they are cooperating with police on their investigation "to the fullest extent possible" and will begin an internal investigation when they are permitted to.
Wauconda police urged parents to talk to their kids about any interaction with Faulkner, and asked anyone with information to contact their Investigations Division.
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