Chicago Tribune –
An Hermosa neighborhood man has been charged with sexually assaulting two toddlers under his care and recording the assaults on video, prosecutors said today.
Wilfredo Elias, 29, was arrested last week while working as a traveling carnival worker in Missouri, authorities said. He was charged after someone found an external computer drive containing the videos, officials said.
Elias is charged with two counts of predatory criminal sexual assault of a victim under age 13 and two counts of aggravated child pornography, according to court records and prosecutors. The victims, girls ages 2 and 3, had been left in Elias’ care, prosecutors said.
A Cook County judge issued a warrant for Elias, of the 1600 block of North Kildare Avenue, on Aug. 31 on a charge of predatory criminal sexual assault. He appeared in Cook County Bond Court on Saturday, where he was ordered held without bail on all the charges against him, and appeared in court again on Tuesday, according to court records.
The assaults were discovered in July when someone found a USB external computer memory drive in a storage area belonging to Elias, plugged it into a computer, and found several videos, including one showing Elias assaulting a child, prosecutors said. The person who found it told a family member, who called police.
Investigators from the state’s attorney’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force found several videos showing Elias assault the 3-year-old girl, and 2-year-old girl. The victims had been left in Elias’s care several times in the last year, prosecutors said.
Elias is on probation in a 2010 case in which he pleaded guilty to felony possession of stolen goods. He was sentenced to two years probation in the case in July 2011, according to court records.
Elias has had several misdemeanor arrests, dating back to 2002, including two misdemeanor marijuana possession arrests, the most recent in 2011, but all those cases had been dropped.
Elias is scheduled to return to court Oct. 5.
