SCOTT COUNTY COURT FINDS NAPLES MAN UNFIT FOR TRIAL IN GROOMING CASE

SCOTT COUNTY — A 25-year-old Naples man charged with grooming young children online and failing to register as a sex offender has been found unfit for trial in Scott County.

Brandon Everhart was previously charged by the Illinois Attorney General’s Office with two counts of grooming, both Class 4 felonies, and one count of failure to register as a sex offender, a Class 3 felony.

According to court records, a Finding of Unfitness and Order for Treatment was officially filed Monday in Scott County Circuit Court. The order was distributed to the public defender’s office, the Greene County Jail, the Scott County Sheriff’s Department and the Illinois Department of Human Services.

A jury trial had been scheduled to begin April 27, but that date is now expected to be vacated. The change will be formally addressed at Everhart’s next hearing set for March 30 in Scott County Circuit Court.

The charges stem from a September 2025 search of Everhart’s residence in the 400 block of Clinton Street in Naples. Investigators with the Illinois Attorney General’s High Tech Crimes Bureau, working alongside the Scott County Sheriff’s Office, executed a search warrant and took Everhart into custody. Authorities allege they discovered evidence he had been grooming young children in online chatrooms for sexual conversations or sexual conduct.

Everhart has been lodged at the Greene County Jail in Carrollton since his arrest. If convicted, he had been facing a potential sentence of three to five years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.