A north suburban high school teacher has been suspended after he was charged in federal court earlier this week on allegations that he transported child pornography on a flight from Mexico to Chicago, officials said.
Thomas Neal, 42, faces one count of transportation of child pornography, the U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of Illinois announced in a news release. The charge was revealed in a criminal complaint filed in Chicago on Wednesday. The charge is punishable by a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in federal prison and a maximum sentence of 20 years, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
The Niles Township High School District 219 website lists an educator named Thomas Neal as a Spanish teacher at Niles North High School in Skokie. A law enforcement source confirmed the Niles North teacher is the same Neal who has been charged.
District 219, in a statement to the Tribune, said it was made aware of the criminal complaint on Thursday and confirmed that the employee under investigation has been placed on suspension. The district stated that it was “cooperating fully with authorities during this active investigation.”
“D219 takes seriously any complaint or allegation against an employee, and we will continue to work with authorities to ensure appropriate actions are taken to keep our school community safe,” the district stated.
Attempts to reach Neal on Friday were unsuccessful.
Federal prosecutors allege that Neal, of Chicago, possessed images and videos of child pornography on his cellphone when he flew from O’Hare International Airport to Benito Juárez International Airport in Mexico City on June 17. When Neal arrived in Mexico City, he was selected for secondary screening by Mexican border authorities, who observed images on his phone that constituted child pornography, the complaint states.
Border authorities secured Neal’s phone and other luggage — which included two laptops and six electronic storage devices — and placed him on a direct flight to Houston, filings state.
In Houston, Homeland Security Investigations agents reviewed Neal’s phone and found hundreds of files that constituted child pornography, according to the complaint.
Forensic examination remains ongoing, the complaint states, but files found on Neal’s phone include an explicit sexual photo and two videos involving minors that had been saved or created within the past three years.
The complaint states that based on a review of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children database records, a person who identified themselves as a former romantic partner of Neal’s had filed a cyber tip in April 2023 reporting that Neal kept a “two-terabyte hard drive of child pornography with him on a regular basis.” The person also stated that he had reported Neal to a high school, which prosecutors note is where Neal is currently employed, citing the school’s website and Neal’s LinkedIn account.
Neal is currently being held in federal custody pending a detention hearing scheduled for next week, federal prosecutors said.
The Tribune’s Jason Meisner and Pam DeFiglio contributed reporting.
