Charged after showing up for a meeting with someone he believed to be a 9-year-old girl, an 18-year-old Fox Lake man pleaded guilty Monday to one count of indecent solicitation of a child.
Under a plea deal negotiated between the Lake County state’s attorney’s office and defense attorney Richard Leng, Devan Bald was sentenced to one year of sex offender probation, which includes sex offender treatment and several restrictions. He also must complete 100 hours of community service and register as a sex offender for the next 10 years.
“I’m deeply sorry. I take full responsibility for my actions,” Bald said in a brief statement to the court.
Judge Mark Levitt accepted the agreement after Assistant State’s Attorney Mary Stanton reported that two separate psychological/sexual evaluations have been completed.
Noting that the charge Bald pleaded to carries a sentencing range of probation to 15 years in prison, Levitt told Bald he has an opportunity address his problems without going to prison. But Levitt added that any violations of the conditions of his sentence could lead to resentencing.
“You are a very young man, and you have a lot of years ahead of you. I sincerely hope that you learn from this and the services that will be provided to you,” Levitt said.
Stanton said that on June 4, 2014, the father of a 9-year-old girl found inappropriate communication between his daughter and Bald on Facebook Messenger. According to prosecutors, the father filed a report with the Lake County sheriff’s office and allowed a sheriff’s investigator to assume his daughter’s chatting identity.
In conversations between Bald and the detective, Bald indicated he wanted to have sex with the girl, Stanton said. An arrangement was made to meet at an Ingleside location, at which Bald said he would arrive in a Camaro. When he did, he was arrested.
Conditions of Bald’s sex offender probation include no unsupervised contact with people younger than 17 except for family members, use of the Internet only for school and work purposes, random searches of his Internet activities and participation in programs the court’s Sex Offender Unit deems necessary.
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If at the end of the year Bald is found to have been in compliance with the conditions, he will be allowed to have his plea changed to solicitation of a child, a Class 4 felony that is less serious than indecent solicitation of a child.
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