I-Team Exclusive: Prison warden removed, linked to sex offender

DIXON, Ill. (WLS) -- An Illinois prison warden is mysteriously taken off the job and while state officials won't say why, the ABC7 Eyewitness News I-Team has new details of what was behind her removal.

The I-Team has learned Monday night that the long-time warden of Dixon Correctional Center was escorted out of the facility and placed on administrative leave. State officials have said only that Nedra Chandler is on paid leave during an investigation.

The I-Team has learned that Chandler has been linked to a sex offender who was arrested on child pornography charges the very same day she was escorted out.

Chandler has been a Department of Corrections employee for three decades, since 2005 the warden at a Dixon medium security men's prison with more than 2,400 inmates.

On Friday, September 19, state corrections officials say Chandler was put on paid leave, escorted off prison grounds and surrendered her state-issued car. Authorities say that is standard operating procedure during an investigation, although they declined to say what the investigation was.

But the I-Team has learned that on the very same day, at the Sterling, Illinois home listed as Chandler's residence, there was a police raid.

Twenty-seven-year-old Robert Swon was arrested at the address which he also lists as his home. According to Sterling Police Swon's arrest follows a six-month investigation. Monday night, he is charged with four counts of child pornography and failure to register as a sex offender from a 2009 child porn conviction.

When contacted by the I-Team at the Sterling home where Warden Chandler apparently lives, she would not discuss the Swon arrest, her own removal from the prison or even provide the name of her attorney.

Late Monday the Illinois Department of Corrections issued a statement concerning the I-Team report. State officials say that within an hour of being notified of the sex offender investigation, they placed Warden Chandler on administrative leave.

In the statement, a corrections spokesman says, "they have zero tolerance for wrongdoing or poor judgment."