Ex-Downers Grove Coach Admits To Child Porn: Records
DARIEN, IL – A former assistant girls track coach at Downers Grove South High School pleaded guilty last month to a felony child pornography charge, according to court records.
Darien resident Glenn Clifford Messmer was arrested April 25, 2023. The same day, he resigned from his volunteer coaching job, which he held for a couple of years.
Messmer’s guilty plea was part of an agreement with prosecutors.
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Starting in 2022, Messmer used Snapchat and Telegram to communicate with a 14-year-old girl, authorities said. He instructed her on sexually explicit videos that he wanted her to record and send him in exchange for money, according to the agreement.
The girl sent a video of her sitting naked in a bathroom, with Messmer then saving several screenshots of the video to his phone, the agreement states.
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Messmer paid the girl by sending the money to two of her friends – girls around her age – in early September 2022 through the Cash App and Venmo applications, the agreement said. He is said to have asked them for sexually explicit photos. They complied.
Prosecutors said the girl sent the photos and videos once a week for several months. Her friends did the same, according to court records.
Messmer told federal agents that he usually made payments of $10 to $50, totaling $2,000, prosecutors said.
Messmer has not been sentenced yet, but he acknowledged in the agreement that he is subject to a statutory minimum of 15 years in prison.
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Messmer is also expected to pay restitution to his victims, the agreement said.
In a statement last year, Downers Grove South said no students were believed to have been involved or included as victims in the case.
Messmer, who was not a full-time school employee, runs a business on eBay selling Legos and other items, court records state.
The school said Messmer passed a background check before he interacted with any students.
Messmer’s attorney, Chris Grohman, couldn’t be reached for immediate comment Thursday.
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