Wheaton cops: Downstate man solicited child online

Wheaton police have arrested a downstate man on charges he solicited a child for sex, authorities said Tuesday.

Nicholas Marcogliese, 32, of Kincaid, was being held in DuPage County jail on $250,000 bail.

Marcogliese is accused of using the Internet to solicit sex from a person whom he believed to be a girl between the ages of 13 and 17.

Authorities said he drove from his home to a prearranged location to meet with the child on July 4.

Wheaton Deputy Police Chief Tom Meloni said Marcogliese was arrested on a warrant Saturday in his home county southeast of Springfield.

Meloni would not release further details, but he said the charges stemmed from an online undercover investigation assisted by the Illinois attorney general’s office and the DuPage sheriff’s E-Crimes Unit.

Marcogliese is charged with indecent solicitation of a child and attempted aggravated criminal sexual abuse, among other felony offenses.

He made a brief appearance Tuesday in court where DuPage Judge Brian Diamond upheld a previously set bail.

Diamond ordered Marcogliese to stay away from minors and computers should he post the necessary $25,000 to be released.

Prosecutors said the defendant’s criminal record includes charges of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and battery in 2003.