LAKE COUNTY, Ill. – An Illinois man has been charged in connection with a human trafficking investigation that resulted in the arrest of a Round Lake Beach woman in 2019.

“There is nothing more revolting than taking the innocence away from a juvenile and promoting a child for prostitution,” Lake County Sheriff John Idleburg said at the time.

The backstory:

On July 12, 2019, Sheila Johnston – who was 33 years old at the time – was arrested for allegedly pimping a 15-year-old girl whom she had legal guardianship of.

According to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, Johnston posted an online advertisement attempting to sell the girl for sex. Undercover detectives saw the post and began communicating with Johnston, who allegedly agreed to offer both the girl and herself for sex.

Johnston then reportedly took the girl to a hotel in Waukegan, where she met an undercover detective posing as a customer. Johnson was taken into custody, and the girl was turned over to child welfare workers with the state’s Department of Children and Family Services.

Now, six years later, 51-year-old Jose Puga was arrested in connection with the case.

Authorities said as the investigation progressed, new evidence and witnesses came to light, providing detectives with “sufficient proof” to link Puga, of Wonder Lake, to the crimes perpetrated against the 15-year-old girl.

An arrest warrant was issued for Puga and on Tuesday, he turned himself in at the Lake County Jail. A detention hearing was set for Tuesday.

He’s been charged with the following:

• Three counts of Involuntary Sexual Servitude of a Minor (Class X Felony)
• Three counts of Trafficking in Persons (Class 1 Felony)
• Six counts of Aggravated Criminal Sexual Abuse (Class 2 Felony)

What they’re saying:

Sheriff Idleburg commented on the update.

“While the investigation was lengthy, the relentless dedication of the investigators ensured that those responsible for victimizing this child were brought to justice,” he said.

Gov. JB Pritzker signed a law to restore Shabbona State Park, a total of about 1,500 acres in DeKalb County, to the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation.

His action Friday comes nearly a year after the group became the first federally recognized tribal nation in Illinois. Previously, Illinois had been one of 15 states without a federally recognized tribal nation.

The law’s passage is part of an attempt to correct what state lawmakers have called a “historic injustice” that occurred 175 years ago when the U.S. government auctioned off nearly 1,300 acres of Prairie Band land, largely encompassing the state park, when Chief Shab-eh-nay was visiting relatives in Kansas. The state established the state park after it purchased the land with federal grant funds between 1969 and 1978.

Prairie Band Chairman Joseph Rupnick, the fourth-generation great-grandson of Chief Shab-eh-nay, said the move showed “healing and reconciliation are possible.”

“Returning our land is a necessary step toward the recognition we deserve as a people and as citizens of Illinois,” Rupnick said. “Illinois has shown true courage and vision by leading the way in the Land Back movement. … We are proud to once again call this land home.”

Because of “quirks” in federal treaties and the way the land was handled legally, this is only an option — as far as lawmakers currently know — for these parcels of land, and couldn’t be used as a framework for returning land to tribal nations nationwide. However, one of the bill’s sponsors, state Rep. Will Guzzardi, D-Chicago, said he wouldn’t be surprised if there are other, similar land transfers that could be made nationwide.

“The Land Back movement is alive and well,” Guzzardi, who represents several Chicago neighborhoods, told the Sun-Times Monday. But “this movement looks like different things in different places. … These are very unique circumstances in Illinois with these parcels of land.”

Prairie Band and the state are now working on a land management agreement to set parameters around how the park is maintained, and the tribal nation has committed to keeping it open to the public and “improving the infrastructure and experience of the park.”

“Our goal and the nation’s goal: The average visitor will not have noticed anything has changed,” Guzzardi said. “It will be preserved as publicly available park land.”

It wasn’t until 2001 that the U.S. Department of the Interior confirmed the history and legal status of the Shab-eh-nay Reservation as federally recognized Indian country because the government’s auction of land owned by Chief Shab-eh-nay had not been approved by Congress, as was required.

Last April, the Interior Department announced the decision to place parts of Shab-eh-nay Reservation land — about 130 acres, or roughly 10% of what was originally stolen — in DeKalb County into trust for the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation and giving the tribal nation sovereignty over the land.

The tribal nation had spent $10 million over the years to get the land back before handing it over to the government to be put into trust and officially recognized. The change in status allowed the land, which sits just southeast of Shabbona, about 70 miles west of Chicago, eligible for federal benefits and protections, and put the tribal nation in charge of governing the land.

As was the case with the prior land return, there are homes on the property not owned by members of the tribal nation, though tribal leaders have promised to work with homeowners and the state to amend their deeds in order to “assure current homeowners that their property is theirs without condition.”

This can only be accomplished through an act of Congress, given how the homes’ deeds were written in connection to the land, but as part of the agreement, the tribal nation has agreed to push for the change to be made at the federal level, allowing the homeowners to have clear titles to their properties.

“This landmark legislation puts Illinois on the right side of history — fostering a partnership with Indigenous communities and returning what was wrongfully acquired,” state Sen. Mark Walker, D-Arlington Heights, one of the bill’s sponsors, said in a statement. “This transfer is not only a common-sense solution, it’s the right thing to do.”