A 40-year-old man pleaded guilty but mentally ill Friday to the attempted kidnapping and sexual abuse of a 4-year-old boy near a Woodstock park last summer.
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Kevin Sorensen of Woodstock pleaded guilty to felony aggravated kidnapping of a child under 13 and aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a child under 13. In exchange for his guilty plea, charges of aggravated battery in a public place and unlawful restraint were dismissed.
Authorities and witnesses said that on Aug. 11, 2017, Sorensen ran up to the boy as he was riding his bicycle to a nearby park and grabbed him. Witnesses saw what Sorensen was doing, tackled him to the ground and held him until police arrived. The boy was not harmed.
Prosecutors in court Friday said Sorensen also tried removing the little boy’s pants as he tried to run off with him.
His lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Angelo Mourelatos, told Judge Sharon Prather that Sorensen had been evaluated by a psychologist, who said that in his opinion Sorensen is mentally ill but knew what he was doing was wrong.
In reading the doctor’s report on Sorensen, Prather said the doctor found that Sorensen was schizophrenic.
Sorensen entered a partial negotiated plea and does not know the length of term he will be sentenced June 15. He faces six to 30 years in prison for the kidnapping charge and three to seven for the aggravated battery. However, Mourelatos said he will be evaluated further and could be found to be sexually violent. If so, upon release from prison he would be remanded to the custody of a state facility.
When Prather asked Sorensen if he understood what he was pleading to, he said, “It’s a hard decision, I guess.”
Sorensen had been a registered sex offender for 10 years for a sexual assault committed in Ryder Woods in Woodstock in the 1990s, according to Woodstock police Chief John Lieb. At the time he tried to kidnap the boy last summer, Sorensen was no longer on the registry.
Amanda Marrazzo is a freelance reporter.