A Troy Township Democratic official was charged with setting up a sex date with a 15-year-old boy and federal agents searched her house on suspicion she has been producing child pornography videos, police said.

Margarita Hernandez, 32, of 6901 Monmouth Drive on Joliet's far west side, was arrested about 3 p.m. Thursday and taken to the Will County jail on a warrant charging her with two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. Hernandez had sex with a 15-year-old Chicago boy during a prearranged July meeting at her home, police said.

Get all the latest Joliet news in your inbox every morning. Sign up for our free daily newsletter. Hernandez shares that home with her boyfriend, 76-year-old veteran weekly newspaperman John Gabriel. Both Gabriel and Hernandez are precinct committeemen for the Troy Township Democrats.

An official with the Troy Democrats said Tuesday he believed Hernandez is Gabriel's granddaughter. But Gabriel confirmed she is his girlfriend. Gabriel went on to claim his much-younger girlfriend was being framed in an attempt to get back at him for exposing corruption.

"This is all a setup," Gabriel said.

Gabriel said the frame was easy to spot "If you remember how some of the people reacted when I went after some of the crooked policemen and crooked politicians."

Gabriel said he suspects a Romeoville police officer he accused of once shooting at him was behind the setup, but declined to identify the supposedly dirty cop. Gabriel said it would all come out when his girlfriend goes to court. "This is all a mechanism to try to get even with me," he said.