A Joliet sex offender accused of secretly taking photos of children at a New Lenox Walmart was found unfit to stand trial and will enter a state-run treatment program before being reassessed.
Paul T. Raibley, 61, was transferred to Illinois Department of Human Services custody after a hearing Oct. 20 in which a Will County judge reviewed a psychological evaluation of Raibley, according to court documents.
Raibley’s attorney, Steve Haney, asked for a fitness evaluation in August, saying Raibley attempted suicide twice while in Will County jail custody.
Haney said Wednesday that Raibley is afflicted with a neurological disorder and is unsure whether it is treatable.
“His ability to communicate with me is basically zero,” Haney said.
The court order requires that Raibley is evaluated again within one year to determine whether his condition can be restored so he can stand trial.
The Department of Human Services is tasked with providing Raibley “appropriate treatment” and is required to present a report with more information on Raibley’s condition at a court hearing scheduled for 9:30 a.m. on Nov. 24, the court order said.
Raibley faces three felony charges of child photography by a child sex offender, accused of videotaping young children between the ages of 5 and 10 years old who were shopping with their mother in the 501 E. Lincoln Highway Walmart.
Court documents obtained by the Daily Southtown indicate a Walmart employee first found Raibley acting suspiciously in the Walmart July 2, telling police she saw a woman in a motorized cart shopping with a young girl when a man put a small device under the girl’s skirt when she wasn’t paying attention.
The employee noted Raibley returning to the store on July 18. She reported following him and alerting a co-worker that he was back, court records show.
New Lenox police were called because of a suspicious subject, who possibly had a key fob in his hand and was “taking pictures of children walking by and placing the object in his hand back into his pocket,” according to court records. Employees showed police the store’s surveillance video of Raibley photographing customers, records show.
Police said they had to pry open Raibley’s fist, which revealed a black key fob that appeared to have a lens on one end and tape placed on the top of the buttons, according to court documents.
When police removed his key fob from his hand, Raibley allegedly exhaled and cursed, court documents said.
Detectives obtained a search warrant for Raibley’s key fob and for his cellphone and storage device where they found a “large number of videos taken within the last month,” court documents said.
“Most of the videos appeared to be taken from a hidden camera style device in which they were very shaky and taken in close proximity to adult and juvenile females,” court documents said. “The children were walking with an adult who did not appear to know the children were being recorded.”
Some of the videos appeared to be at Walmart and others at a public pool, court documents said. There were four different “upskirt style videos” that were taken in a retail setting capturing underneath four different female skirts, court documents said.
The black key fob had 12 different files, containing 5- to 19-second videos of an adult woman with three young children. The adult woman told police she did not give her consent for her children to be photographed or videotaped, court records show.
Raibley has a prior federal conviction for production of child pornography, according to Will County court records.
