DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) - A former Sangamon County church pastor pleaded not guilty to charges accusing him of grooming a Macon County minor through social media.
Joseph Krol, 37, is accused of sending sexually inappropriate Snapchat messages to a 15-year-old minor from Oreana. A sworn affidavit said Krol asked the child to take part in a "true online confessions game" on Oct. 7, when he allegedly contacted them.
This game became sexual in nature after starting off in an innocent context, authorities said. He's accused of telling the child he could bring them a gift and could sneak out and come over while everyone was asleep.
The victim saved pictures of the conversations on their phone. That phone was turned over to law enforcement.
According to Macon County deputies, when they went to serve a search warrant at Krol's residence on Oct. 15, he didn't answer the door for several minutes and could be seen manipulating buttons on his phone in the kitchen. Deputies said they learned he reset the phone to factory settings.
Krol used to be a pastor of Galilee Baptist Church in Decatur and had most recently been in the same role at Rochester First Baptist Church.
Krol pleaded not guilty in court on Wednesday to multiple charges, including counts of solicitation to meet a child, grooming, obstruction of justice and enticing a child to remove clothes.
Pre-trial for Krol is set for Jan. 7, 2022.
