Jeremy Hylka Remains In Hospital, Joliet Police Await His Arrest

JOLIET, IL — At 4 p.m. Saturday, the Joliet Police Department issued a news release announcing that detectives have learned that Jeremy Hylka is currently admitted as a patient in a nearby hospital.

"Detectives have been in communication with Mr. Hylka’s attorney who has indicated cooperation for Hylka to turn himself in to Joliet Police Detectives upon his release from the hospital," Joliet Police Department spokesman Dwayne English advised. "As of this writing, the release date/time from the hospital is unknown."

At Friday's news conference, Joliet Police Lt. Joe Egizio said his criminal investigations unit did not know the whereabouts of Hylka, but Egizio is confident that the terminated Diocese of Joliet Catholic school teacher will be in custody "in the near future."

On Thursday, Joliet police obtained an arrest warrant for Hylka on charges of traveling to meet a child and charges of grooming, both felonies. Hylka's bail is $100,000, so he will need to post 10 percent to get out of the Will County Jail, the lieutenant who oversees Joliet police criminal investigations told everyone.

During Friday's news conference, one reporter asked Egizio whether Hylka is currently admitted into a hospital in New Lenox, which is where Silver Cross Hospital is located.

Egizio responded by saying, "I don't know."

Joliet police explained that the video that has circulated on social media in recent days showed Hylka was attempting to meet up with someone Hylka believed to be 15 years old for the purposes of sexual activities.

Hylka went to the McDonald's in Joliet expecting to meet up with a 15-year-old boy for oral sex inside Hylka's vehicle, according to the Save Our Siblings group.

"Our cooperating witness posed as a 15-year-old, but is actually 19 years old," long-time Joliet Police Detective Shawn Filipiak told reporters at the news conference.

Because Hylka believed the teenager he was meeting up with was 15, "the statutory requirement is met" for criminal prosecution, Filipiak explained.

Filipiak and Egizio told reporters that the person responsible for capturing the Snapchat videos of Hylka was not working in any capacity on behalf of Joliet police.

"Absolutely not," Egizio remarked. "I never met this person in my whole life."

The group responsible for filming Hylka enter the Joliet McDonald's on West Jefferson Street and filming the former Joliet Catholic Academy theology teacher as he ran from the business, trying to hide his face with his shirt, was acting independently of law enforcement, Egizio said.

Joliet police said the group involved in filming Hylka is known as Save Our Siblings.

"It's an independent group. They do not have law enforcement authority," Egizio said.

However, the group provided Joliet police with access to their videos and Joliet police later independently verified the videos involved Hylka, Egizio told reporters Friday.

During the news conference, one reporter asked Joliet police whether the person making the video was engaging in harassing behavior toward Hylka and whether calling Hylka a child pedophile repeatedly in the video would be problematic for the ongoing criminal prosecution.

In the video, the Save Our Siblings cameraman repeatedly yells, "Hey, we've got a pedophile! We've got a pedophile on the run! Pedophile on the run! Are we gonna get you, pedophile?"

Filipiak responded to the question by pointing out that that was not a concern to the Will County State's Attorney's Office because prosecutors agreed to file two felony charges against Hylka.

"Obviously it must not have bothered them," Filipiak said.

A Chicago television reporter asked a question regarding a statement put out by Hylka's former employer, Joliet Catholic Academy.

The statement indicated that JCA notified Joliet police in June of 2020 "of online allegations" involving Hylka, and that Hylka resigned his position from JCA.

This current school year, Hylka was hired to teach at St. Joseph Catholic School in Lockport.

The Diocese of Joliet announced that he was terminated from all positions affiliated with the diocese as a result of this week's incident that led to the criminal charges.

The group that posted an 18-minute-long video on YouTube called "Jeremy Hylka Exposed" informed people who watch the video that it's about a "Joliet teacher caught in the act, as he tried to meet a underage kid and do sexual things with him, there was multiple times in his career where things similar have been brought up, and we need him gone! We can no longer allow people like him running around doing things like this and thinking its okay!!!!

"So this is why we have created this organization SaveOurSiblings!"

Filipiak said the allegations from last summer involving Joliet Catholic were "from a third party" and involved "unsubstantiated claims with unknown witnesses at this time."

In addition to the diocese, the Joliet Weather Center also parted ways with Hylka this week.

As Friday's news conference drew to a close, Lt. Egizio returned to the podium.

He wanted everyone to know that he was impressed with how fast this week's criminal investigation of Hylka came together.

Standing next to Egizio during the news conference was Joliet's deputy chief of criminal investigations, Carlos Matlock, as well as Filipiak.

Friday marked the Joliet Police Department's first news conference at the downtown police station in several years.

The Joliet Police Department held no news conferences involving criminal cases during the tenure of Al Roechner, who served as chief from August 2018 until January.

Joliet made Dawn Malec the new chief in January, and she replaced three of Roechner's four deputy chiefs.

"Any case that comes together like this, where a child's a victim or a child's an intended victim, my investigations division drops what they're doing, teams up, and gets the job done," Egizio said, referring to the Hylka investigation.

In addition to Filipiak, Egizio also wanted to thank fellow Joliet police detectives Don McKinney, Dave Jackson, Michael Cagle, Paul Rodriguez and Brad McKeon.

"Putting this together in such a short time is very impressive from a law enforcement perspective," Egizio told reporters. "It's the teamwork that these detectives did that resulted in the two felony counts within two days of the incident being reported to us, so I would like to publicly commend the men and women of the investigations division of the Joliet Police Department.

"And, yes, we encourage any victims of this type of behavior, by any individual in our community, please call the Joliet Police Department. Our general line in investigations is 815-724-3020."