I purchased the following article from The Chicago Tribune archives. I retyped it here. There are some errors from the original print edition that I left in tact.
March 31, 1978
Chicago Tribune, page 5
Child Molester Gets Probation
By Michael Sneed
A convicted child molester, who was described by the police as a “one man child molestation ring,” was placed four years’ probation Thursday by Circuit Judge Warren D. Wolfson.
Judge Wolfson also ordered Robert Cleveland, 53, of 2440 N. Hamlin Av., convicted Feb 15 of taking indecent liberties with a 10-year-old-boy, to spend 52 weekends in jail, pay a $2,000 fine, and to receive psychiatric care.
“I feel rage – I wanted that man permanently removed from society,” said the mother of the 10-year-old victim. “That is why we decided to take a stand against this kind of horror in our society,” she said and then broke into tears.
“When he hurt my child, he hurt me. And if I had to do it again, I’d do it again. You have no idea how sick and heinous and damaging a situation like this can be.”
Cleveland, president of a South Side furniture company, was convicted of taking indecent liberties on Oct. 11, 1975, with a boy he had seen during mass in Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church.
“Cleveland is a one-man ring who has been recruiting kids by the busload for his own sexual pleasure,” said Ed Flynn, an investigator with the Illinois Legislative Investigating Commission. The commission has been probing cases of child molestation and pornography under a resolution passes in Springfield a year ago.
The child pornography probe was fueled, in part, by a series of articles on the problem in The Tribune last year, he said.
“Cleveland not only took pictures of these kids, but he also stag movies of them,” Flynn said. Investigators became involved in the case when Cleveland’s name kept cropping up in their probes of both sexual abuse and child pornography, according to Ron Ewert, the commission director.
“We have been able to trace his sexual contacts back about 15 years and with children as young as seven,” he said.
In an unusual pre-sentence hearing several weeks ago, a 13-year-old-boy testified he periodically spent time with Cleveland, playing “strip poker,” viewing child pornography, and engaging in sex in Cleveland’s home.
“He had great ability to con families into allowing boys to travel all over with him,” Evert said.
Dr. Gershon Kaplan, a psychiatrist who testified for the prosecution, said he was “not optimistic” that would be successful and in his opinion Cleveland would continue seeking the company of young males.
However, a psychiatrist testifying for the defense said “there was very good likelihood that treatment would be successful.”
In reaching his decision, Judge Wolfson said, “The easiest thing to do would be to take the popular view and put this man in the penitentiary. But whenever a crime of this nature has been committed in the past, this offense wasn’t deterred by harsh sentence.”
End of story
Yeah, harsh prison sentences don’t deter this type of criminal action, so the best thing to do is keep him on the street where he can harm other children. Brilliant.
The police never recovered the stag films in which I was filmed.
