ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune
By Robert McCoppin, Tribune reporter
8:37 p.m. CST, February 13, 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.
Children in the so-called Special Friends program are supposed to be under the supervision of two adults at all times, church spokeswoman Susan DeLay said, but Sobczak violated that policy, which she said he later admitted. Since then, DeLay said, officials have retrained staff on following the rules and have added more surveillance cameras for greater security.
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