ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune
By Robert McCoppin, Tribune reporter
10:18 a.m. CST, February 15, 2014
Two lawsuits claim that negligence by officials at Willow Creek Community Church allowed a volunteer to molest two young boys with special needs during church programs.
The latest suit, filed Thursday, alleges that the church did not sufficiently supervise Robert Sobczak, now 20, a volunteer who pleaded guilty in December to aggravated criminal sexual abuse of an 8-year-old boy. Sobczak was sentenced to two years of probation and has registered with the state as a child sex offender living in Niles.
In that case, prosecutors said, the boy was a participant in a church program for children with special needs when Sobczak took the boy into a secluded area and sexually abused him on Feb. 17, 2013.
The boy immediately told his mother and police were contacted, which prompted a broader investigation of whether Sobczak molested any other children, said attorney Kevin Golden, who is representing the boy’s family in a civil lawsuit against Sobczak and the large evangelical church in South Barrington.
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