Woman Allegedly Fondles Toddler on Camera in Chat Room

BY ANDY KRAVETZ AND KAREN McDONALD Peoria, Illinois Journal Star

PEORIA - A 21-year-old Minonk woman faces federal charges after being arrested for allegedly showing live video on the Internet of her fondling a naked 16-month-old boy that she was baby-sitting.

Taylor A. March of 719 Oak St. was arrested Monday evening at her home, hours after she allegedly posted the video in a Yahoo! chatroom, "Preteen Sex on Camera."

March had been baby-sitting six other children -- all of whom were girls. The children ranged in age from 16 months old up to 8 years old. When she was arrested, only the 16-month-old child was at her home. The other children were not present when the alleged crime occurred, said Woodford County sheriff's Detective Terry Glaub.

The Sheriff's Department and State's Attorney's Office plan to conduct interviews with those children to determine whether any other crimes occurred. The State's Attorney's Office also is reviewing the case for possible local charges, officials said.

"It wasn't long and drawn out. It's nice to get a perpetrator like that off the streets," Woodford County Chief Deputy Darren Evans said.

March faces a single charge of "knowing use (sic) a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing visual depictions of such conduct."

U.S. District Judge Joe B. McDade ordered her held in custody of the U.S. Marshals pending a bond hearing Thursday morning.

If convicted, March faces up to 15 years in prison.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Keith said authorities are examining March's computer.

According to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court, March had logged into the chatroom and began chatting about having sex with children.

At some point, she aimed a Web camera toward her so the others in the room could see her.

The complaint alleges March began to change the child's diapers in view of the camera. She then allegedly touched and masturbated the child as the Web camera sent live video to other chatroom members, the complaint states.

March had been caring for the boy since late last year.

She does not have any children of her own and is not related to any of the children she baby-sat, Glaub said.

"Our concern was to expedite this case to ensure the child wasn't in harm's way," Glaub said.

An undercover Naperville police officer captured the Internet video and informed authorities here, the complaint states.

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[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Do you recall an old saying from years ago when movie/show people talked about 'sort of racy', x-rated movies and one of their citerion was always "Will it play in Peoria?" Well this 'movie' not only played in Peoria but was created in Peoria. And when someone asks why is this sort of malicious behavor allowed on the internet, _someone_ always hastens to tell us that 'there is no consensus on the net for what is malicious.' And if we wish to listen to them rattling on and on, they will tell us how this is an anarchy, how the internet does not really exist, that it is only a collection of sites and how we dasn't interfere with a private site and whatever trash and scams they send out. And of course they insist that 'no one is in charge of anything' and further ...'that is the way that everyone wants it to be.' The hell they say!

I say this: if ICANN is going to throw their weight around and purport to be the people in charge (which effectively they do with their lop-sided contracts that _everyone_ has to sign, then Vint Cerf and Esther Dyson and their gang should come back off of vacation in Argentina (or wherever they are this week) and write up new and meaningful contracts which everyone has to sign (ICANN has had no trouble making that happen up to now and I am _certain_ they can phase it in; but that's the catch, the joke is on you, me and other netters. Vint Cerf cont- tributed more to the advancing Internet Slum than anyone else out there. And I guess they are not going to back down, but neither am I.

So you little precious ones who get so offended when you are told what a mess this net has gotten to be, and that many of you were and are responsible for it, write yourself a Perl script (or use the one I put here the other day for what's-his-name) and just begin skipping over the Editor Notes. PAT]