A 40-year-old Chicago man has been charged with multiple felonies after a Cook County Sheriff’s Police investigation found he solicited an undercover officer posing as a teenage boy on a dating app, Sheriff Thomas J. Dart announced today.
The man, identified as Jaime Garcia, was arrested on Thursday, Feb. 27 by Sheriff’s Police after he arranged to meet a person he thought was a 15-year-old boy at a pre-determined location, according to the investigation.
Garcia contacted an ad on the dating app on Feb. 25 and continued to communicate with the individual, including sending sexually explicit messages, even after the individual stated he was age 15 on the first day of their interaction. Garcia then arranged to meet the individual to engage in sexual activity, according to the investigation.
Garcia appeared today at a bond hearing at the Maywood Courthouse charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse, grooming, indecent solicitation of a child, and traveling to meet a minor. Bail was set at $35,000 with electronic monitoring.
The public is reminded that the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty by the government in a court of law.