The second of two brothers arrested on child pornography charges in a filthy home in Englewood that was later condemned is headed to prison on a 32-year sentence.
Daniel Alberts
Both Daniel Alberts and his brother Timothy Alberts had prior convictions for sexual assault on a child from the late 1970s and early 1980s. Consequently, both faced enhanced sentencing on the child pornography charges as habitual sex offenders against children.
“There are those among us who believe child pornography is a victimless crime. It is not. There are those who believe that people like Alberts, who feed their lascivious desires at the expense of childhood innocence, are fixable. They are not,” said District Attorney George Brauchler. “This disgusting behavior encourages the horrible victimization of helpless, innocent children to feed an unjustifiable and corrupt habit. People engaging in this behavior, especially at this level, deserve to spend the rest of their lives in prison. These men most likely will. We will continue to fight for the powerless and the victimized.”
On April 18, 2018, Englewood police were called to a home in the 3900 block of South Washington Street.
Officers found the home was infested with rats, mice, maggots and insects. A hazardous materials team was called in and a search warrant obtained. Investigators found children’s underwear, diapers, sex toys and numerous sexually explicit images and videos of children on computers in the home. Police collected a huge cache of printed material, photos, VHS tapes, DVDs, and hard drives. The volume was so immense that only selective sampling of the material realistically could be done. The results of that sampling revealed well over a quarter of a million separate pieces of child pornography. The true number is likely far more.
Timothy Alberts, 63, pleaded guilty Dec. 20 to two counts of sexual exploitation of a child, Class 3 felonies, and was sentenced Feb. 25, 2019, to 22 years in prison.
“The depth of depravity involved here cannot be overstated. Not only did these two men commit heinous sexual assaults of young children in the past, they apparently never turned away from those twisted desires,” said Deputy District Attorney Michael Mauro, who prosecuted the case. “The brothers stockpiled well over three decades’ worth of child pornography with no regard for the broader implications of consuming such sick material. As long as there is a market for child pornography, children will continue to be trafficked, exploited, and abused. Anyone who participates in that market and gets caught will be punished.”