A grand jury indicted David A. Regal, 18, of stealing money from the McHenry County jail fund to pay for Internet porn, the jail's deputy chief said Tuesday.
The fund is normally used by inmates to purchase incidentals like toothpaste and shaving cream, but after Regal was discharged from his first sentence for writing bad checks, he used the routing number from a prison-generated refund check to purchase subscriptions to porn sites.
Regal faces a felony charge that could send him back to the slammer for three years. He is scheduled for arraignment on June 23, the jail's deputy chief said.
The Internet porn charges went unnoticed by prison officials until Regal had charged the prison's bank account $175 dollars in electronic porn transactions.
"This is the one and only time it's happened, and it won't happen again," said a representative for McHenry County jail.
Regal is free on $30,000 bail. Information on which porn sites Regal had subscribed to was not available at press time.