Northwestern Police Lieutenant Accused Of Making Child Porn

By Mae Rice in News on Feb 4, 2016 9:32PM

Ronald Godby, 53, has been charged with manufacturing and possessing child porn, as well as grooming (Mount Prospect Police Department)

A lieutenant in Northwestern University's police force has been charged with making and possessing child pornography, as well as grooming.

Ronald Godby, 53, allegedly took lewd pictures of a girl twice, the Tribune reports: once when she was 13, and again when she was 17. The latter shoot took place at the photography studio in Godby’s Mount Prospect home.

Godby later contacted the girl, still 17, on Snapchat and asked her to do a third photo shoot, and sent her “an electronic image of his penis,” as the Tribune puts it. The girl told her classmates about Godby’s advances, and they told a teacher, who reported Godby to the authorities.

In a factually different report, the Sun-Times says that police began to investigate Godby due to an explicit image of the 17-year-old he posted on Snapchat.

Now charged with multiple felonies, Godby has been placed on administrative leave and banned from campus, Northwestern officials told reporters.

According to Godby's photography website, he often shot shows put on by high school students in Arlington Heights, though district officials are adamant they never hired him.

Jennifer Delgado, a District 214 spokeswoman, said in a statement obtained by the Tribune that Godby "has not been hired by the district to shoot photos of students or events. He is a parent who has taken photographs at public events and practices at school."

When detectives told Godby that they would execute search warrants on his Mount Prospect home, he said, “If you have enough for a search warrant, I'm [expletive],” according to court documents obtained by the Tribune.

Godby's lawyer, Robert Callahan, doesn’t even claim his client is innocent. Instead, he told the Tribune: "The charges are egregious, but [my client] wants the opportunity to answer them in court."

The bio on Godby’s photography website now reads as horrifying.“I specialize in model and dance images,” reads the second sentence.