City worker on sex offender registry cleared of charges
Judge finds that he was on schools’ grounds for job-related activities
A registered child sex offender who works for the Chicago Department of Public Health was cleared of felony charges Thursday for being on the grounds of two Chicago Public Schools.
Cook County Judge Laura Sullivan found no probable cause after a preliminary hearing in which one of Terrence Sheahan’s supervisors testified that Sheahan went to Roberto Clemente High and South Shore College Prep for job-related activities.
Sheahan went to Clemente, 1147 N. Western, on Dec. 14 to respond to a mercury spill in the school’s library, said Joseph Hollendoner, first deputy commissioner at the Chicago Department of Public Health.
Part of Sheahan’s job as an environmental engineer and haz-mat specialist is to help in cleanup situations, Hollendoner said.
Sheahan, 48, also went to a mandatory work training session at South Shore College Prep, 1955 E. 75th, in July, Hollendoner said. There were about 550 department employees at the training session and although summer school was in session, many students were on a field trip, said Hollendoner, who was asked to testify by prosecutors.
A Chicago Police detective also testified that she was told students were at the two schools when Sheahan was present, but she was not told whether they were under 18.
Hollendoner said he was unaware that Sheahan was a registered sex offender until he got a call from the Sun-Times in mid-August. Once his bosses learned of his status, they called police and Sheahan was arrested.
When Sheahan appeared for a bond hearing in September, Judge Adam Bourgeois Jr. noted that Sheahan’s visits to the schools were “not something you initiated on your own.”
It was Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell who wrote this summer about how a tipster complained that Sheahan was at South Shore for the daylong sessions.
Sheahan worked as an electrical engineer for the city’s Department of Environment when he was convicted and sentenced to two years probation for soliciting a minor.
Sheahan thought he was talking to a 15-year-old boy in an online chatroom on Sept. 12, 2002, and agreed to meet him later that night so he could perform a sex act on him. Sheahan was actually talking to a police officer. So when he arrived at the meeting place, he was arrested.
As a result of his 2007 conviction, Sheahan has to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.