Peel's wife, Deborah Pontious, and her 9-year-old daughter, Alexandria, brought Peel to the federal courthouse. His federal public defender, Philip J. Kavanaugh III, then took Peel downstairs to the U.S. marshal's office where he turned himself in at 11:50 a.m.

Last week, U.S. District Judge William Stiehl ordered Peel to turn himself in Monday. Peel won't be sentenced until June — he could get up to 40 years — but prosecutors wanted Peel detained immediately because of the child pornography conviction.

Peel, 62, was a former attorney for the village of Glen Carbon and had once worked for the Lakin Law Firm, a powerful Metro East firm whose founder, Tom Lakin, is being sued in a civil court over allegations of sex and drug abuse.

Peel was indicted early last year amid reports that he told his ex-wife that he had nude photos of her sister, which he said he would send to her elderly parents unless the ex-wife agreed to a settlement involving their divorce. The sister was 16 at the time the photos were taken, authorities said.

When Peel was interviewed by investigators from the FBI and the U.S. attorney's office last year, he had testified that the initial focus was on local judges and lawyers — a hint of a wider investigation into alleged corruption in the Metro East legal community.

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