Bond set for Carol Stream man charged in sex case

A Carol Stream man accused of soliciting undercover police officers for sex with a minor was ordered held Friday on $350,000 bail.

Frank Descetto, 60, was arrested about 5:30 p.m. Thursday after two officers posing as a pimp and a teenage girl arrived at his apartment on the 500 block of Red Hill Trail, prosecutors said.

In a series of recorded phone calls, Descetto had agreed to pay $500 for sex with a 15- or 16-year-old girl, Assistant State's Attorney Demetri Demopoulos said. He said the defendant met the undercover officers at Stratford Square Mall in Bloomingdale on Wednesday to finalize the arrangement.

Demopoulos said officers recorded Descetto giving graphic details of what he intended to do with a child prostitute and requesting that they smoke marijuana during the encounter. He said Descetto told police he spent $30,000 last year on adult prostitutes, and officers recovered $500 from his home.

“This is a hobby of his and it's now taken a deviant turn that puts children in jeopardy,” Demopoulos told DuPage County Judge Michael Wolfe in bond court Friday. “The people's evidence in this case is strong.”

Descetto, who told the judge he lives off disability checks, denied the allegations.

“It's not true,” he said before a court-appointed attorney advised him to stop speaking.

Wolfe set bail at $350,000, meaning Descetto would have to post $35,000 to be released from the county jail. The judge ordered him to have no contact with children should he bond out.

Demopoulos said Descetto has a criminal history in New York, including charges of theft and marijuana possession in the early 1980s.

In the latest case, he is charged with patronizing a minor engaged in prostitution, solicitation of a sex act and attempted aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a child.

Descetto was arrested by members of the DuPage Sheriff's multijurisdictional Tactical Narcotics Team working in conjunction with the West Chicago Police Department. Police said they opened the investigation after receiving a tip that Descetto was inquiring about having sexual relations with a minor.