Joliet Reporter Arrested by FBI Hit With Child Porn Charge

By Joseph Hosey

The FBI arrest of veteran community newspaperman John Gabriel Thursday morning included a charge of manufacturing child pornography.

Gabriel, 77, "enticed" a girl "to engage in sexually explicit conduct" so he could "produce a visual depiction" of it, according to an indictment unsealed after his arrest.

Gabriel also "destroyed, mutilated, and concealed" a desktop computer, the indictment said.

Gabriel allegedly destroyed the computer "when FBI agents executed a search warrant (at) his residence on Aug. 14, 2012," according to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Gabriel manufactured the child pornography in July 2012, the statement said.

About the same time Gabriel was allegedly manufacturing child pornography, his live-in lover, 33-year-old Margarita Hernandez, was setting up and indulging in a sex date with a teenage boy, police said.

The youth is a friend of the son of one of Hernandez's cousins, officials said. Gabriel was home with Hernandez at the time of the alleged sex date, police said.

Hernandez's case remains pending.

In the wake of Hernandez's arrest, Gabriel defended his girlfriend against the allegations and said she was merely a pawn targeted by the many enemies he made during his career as a weekly newspaper reporter.

"This thing with Margarita is nothing more than an adventure in hate," Gabriel said at the time.

"This is all a setup," he said, noting that the frame job was easy to spot, "If you remember how some of the people reacted when I went after some of the crooked policemen and crooked politicians."

Gabriel also claimed The FBI has an extensive collection of reports on him, as well as numerous threatening letters he received and forwarded to an agent in the Orland Park office.