Illinois State Police arrested a registered child sex offender at a church Halloween event in the village of St. Anne, in Kankakee County, and are now urging parents across Illinois to check the state's sex offender registry before their children go trick-or-treating tonight. In a release reported by WCIA on Saturday, October 31, the state police said Mitchel R. DeYoung, 52, of St. Anne, was arrested on Wednesday, October 28, at a trunk-or-treat event being held in the same village.

Source: WCIA, Oct 31, 2026

DeYoung faces 10 counts in total. According to the state police release, they are eight counts of failure to register as a child sex offender, each a Class 2 felony; one count of child sex offender in a school zone, a Class 4 felony; and one count of child sex offender participation in a holiday event, also a Class 4 felony. The Hometown Register's Illinois Quick Hits roundup, reporting the same state police release independently on Saturday, carried the identical charge list: eight failure-to-register counts, the school-zone count and the holiday-event count.

Source: The Hometown Register (Illinois Quick Hits), Oct 31, 2026

Held at the Kankakee County Jail pending a first court appearance

State police said DeYoung is currently being held at the Kankakee County Jail pending his first court appearance. The release, as reported, did not name the church that hosted the event, did not give a time for the arrest, and did not say how officers located him at the event. The charges are allegations announced by the state police; they have not been tested in court, and DeYoung is presumed innocent unless and until he is proven guilty.

The Halloween rules state police spelled out

In the same release, state police set out the restrictions that apply to registered sex offenders on Halloween itself. Registered sex offenders are prohibited from passing out candy on Halloween, the agency said. They also may not appear in a Halloween costume or in another child-centred holiday character, such as Santa or the Easter Bunny, in public. The holiday-event participation count and the school-zone count in DeYoung's charge list sit on top of that wider set of Illinois restrictions on where registered child sex offenders may be and what they may take part in.

Source: WCIA, Oct 31, 2026

Trunk-or-treat events have become a standard Halloween fixture in Illinois towns: churches, schools and community groups park decorated cars in a lot and hand out candy from the trunks, so children move from car to car in one supervised place instead of walking door to door after dark. It is exactly that kind of child-centred holiday gathering that the holiday-event charge in this case refers to.

"When trick-or-treating, children should be supervised by a trusted adult and should never enter strangers' homes or vehicles," the state police release reads, in part. The agency also urges trick-or-treaters to travel in well-lit areas and in groups.

Why the timing of this arrest matters

The arrest was made on Wednesday, but it was only reported publicly on Saturday — Halloween itself, hours before children across Illinois, including Punjabi families in the Chicago area and in smaller downstate communities, head out for the evening. For parents, the practical value of the state police announcement is the warning attached to it: the registry check takes minutes, and the agency is asking families to do it before, not after, tonight's events.

What happens next

The next step in the case is DeYoung's first court appearance in Kankakee County; the state police reporting checked for this story does not give a date or a bond figure, and no further court detail has been announced. Until then he remains in custody at the county jail. For families, the immediate step is the one state police repeated on Saturday: check the ISP Sex Offender Registry for the streets and event locations on tonight's route, keep children with a trusted adult, and stick to well-lit areas.