Jan. 29--A police detective posing as a 14-year-old girl nabbed a Northwest Side parolee who used Facebook to try to meet the child for a sexual encounter, prosecutors said.
Joseph L. Coleman, 25, of the 2000 block of North Nagle Avenue, appeared Wednesday before Maywood Judge Carol Kipperman, who set bail at $35,000, according to Cook County state's attorney's office spokesman Steve Campbell.
Coleman, who faces charges of child pornography, traveling to meet a minor and indecent solicitation of a child, is on parole for burglary convictions, Campbell said.
On Dec. 27, three children created a Facebook profile using a fictitious name and fictitious pictures of a girl they called "Jennifer Amand'' said Campbell. The profile indicated she was 17 and it used one of the children's real cell phones as a contact number and Coleman began interacting with her and sent her Facebook messages that included pictures of his genitalia, said Campbell.
"For the next month, the defendant under the Facebook profile of Joseph Coleman contacted Jennifer via Facebook and the minor's cell phone,'' Campbell said.
On Dec. 28, the minors used Facebook to tell him "Jennifer' was only 14 but he continued to contact her and he eventually "requested sex,'' "various sexual acts'' and on Dec. 29 asked her for a topless photo, Campbell said.
On multiple occasions he went to a store parking lot in the 8300 block of Grand Avenue in River Grove believing he was going to meet her but no meeting actually happened.
On Jan. 14, one of the children, all of whom were 13 at the time of the offense, told a school social worker, and on Jan. 16, an Elmwood Park Police detective assumed the identity of "Jennifer" and began an undercover operation, Campbell said.
After "Jennifer'' and Coleman agreed to meet at the Grand Avenue address on Monday, Coleman "went to the location and he indicated via cell messages that he was in front of the meeting place, and that's when he was arrested without incident,'' Campbell said.
Coleman was taken into custody by Elmwood Park police.
Coleman is slated to appear in court again on Feb. 18.
