Child Sexual Assault Charges For Man Accused Of Similar Crimes In Texas: Joliet PD

JOLIET, IL ? The Joliet Police Department has taken a 28-year-old Naperville man named Vidal Alexander Martinez-Katopodis to the Will County Jail on charges of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child.

Joliet police spokesman Tizoc Landeros said that around 8 p.m. April 18, officers were dispatched to a house following a report that a man had inappropriately touched two children under age 10.

Landeros said that the victims? mother told officers that she usually relies on the girls? grandmother, but that Martinez-Katopodis babysat the children while she ran errands. On this day, Martinez-Katopodis watched the children alone for the first time.

When they returned, one of the victims told her mother that Martinez-Katopodis had touched her inappropriately. The mother then informed the grandmother and asked Martinez-Katopodis to leave the residence. Both victims reported that Martinez-Katopodis had touched them in a sexual manner, according to Landeros.

A third child in the home did not make any allegations, Landeros announced.

All three juveniles underwent forensic interviews. Allegations of sexual misconduct were made by both victims, while the other child did not make any disclosures, police said.

Detective Petro, a Juvenile Sex Crimes Investigator with the Joliet Police Department, later received information from a 19-year-old woman in Grande Prairie, Texas. She reported on behalf of an underage teen that Martinez-Katopodis had sexually molested her when she was 10 years old.

This information was documented and referred to the Grande Prairie Police Department, according to Landeros.

Detective Petro was later informed by a Grand Prairie detective that an arrest warrant had been obtained for Martinez-Katopodis based on the Texas allegations. The U.S. Marshals Service subsequently took Martinez-Katopodis into custody on that warrant. Detective Petro then arranged for an interview with Martinez-Katopodis at the Joliet Police Department regarding the Joliet case.

During the interview, Martinez-Katopodis made incriminating statements concerning the allegations made by the two Joliet victims. He was booked, processed, and transported to the Will County jail without incident, Landeros revealed.

Jail records show an address in the 1200 block of Duke Court in Naperville for Martinez-Katopodis.