Police: Palatine Man Admits To Child Sex Assault, Pornography

PALATINE, IL — A Palatine man is being held without bond while facing felony charges, including felony predatory criminal sexual assault of a child and felony child pornography. According to a news release, 18-year-old Jeremy Reyes, from the 1200 block of Isle Royal Circle in Palatine, was ordered held without bond Friday by a Cook County judge after police said he admitted to his involvement in two recent incidents, each involving a child.

Around 8 p.m. on May 27, Palatine Police Department officers were called to the 1400 block of Ports O'Call Drive in Palatine for a delayed report of a criminal sexual assault involving a child, the news release said. Police were told that the child was playing outside nearby around 3 p.m., when an unknown man grabbed the child and took them into a stairwell of an adjacent apartment building where he's accused of sexually assaulting the child and taking a picture of the child with his cell phone, according to police. Palatine police detectives continued to investigate the incident and identified the man, the news release said.

Just after 6 p.m. Tuesday, Palatine police officers were called to North Rose Avenue in Palatine for another report involving an unknown man who came up to a child who was playing outside. The man asked the child to go into an apartment building, but the child ran away, according to police.

The caller's description of the man was similar to that from the May 27 incident, according to the news release. A Palatine police officer called to the area saw a man who matched the description running away, and the officer was able to stop him.

Reyes was identified as the person who was with the child Tuesday, according to the news release. The mother of the victim from the May 27 incident got to the scene and told the officers that Reyes was the offender seen with her child, police said.

During the investigation, police said Reyes admitted to his involvement in both incidents. Authorities got a search warrant for Reyes' cell phone and found that it contained a recording of his contact with the victim from May 27, according to the news release.

As a result of the investigation, Reyes faces one felony count of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child, one felony count of aggravated kidnapping and one felony count of child pornography from the May 27 incident, and one felony count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse from Tuesday's incident, according to police.

Reyes' next court date is scheduled for July 29 in Rolling Meadows, according to the news release.

Patch will update this news as more information becomes available.