Man gets six months in jail for blackmailing women for sex
An 18-year-old Aurora man who threatened to distribute nude photos of two women unless they had sex with him has been sentenced to 180 days in jail.
Maxwell T. Melgar, of the 800 block of Lafayette St., was charged with attempted sexual assault and intimidation of an 18-year-old woman and sexual assault of a 20-year-old woman after evidence was found on his phone in January, according to law authorities and prosecutors.
Melgar was arrested on Jan. 27 near Fourth Street and Euclid Avenue in Aurora, where authorities say he told an 18-year-old woman to meet him so they could have sex. When he got there, police were waiting.
Melgar, according to police and court records, was accused of threatening to post nude pictures of the 18-year-old on social media unless she had sex with him.
During a search of his cellphone, authorities say they uncovered evidence of a similar crime against the 20-year-old woman, and more charges were filed.
According to court documents, the 20-year-old woman had sex with Melgar about 15 times and paid him about $500 so he would not share her photos online.
Late last week, Kane County Judge James Hallock accepted Melgar's guilty plea to intimidation, a felony that carried a punishment range of probation up to five years in prison.
Melgar also was ordered to have no contact with the victims and to pay one of them $500 restitution, records show. He also must serve two years of sex offender probation, including treatment.
The sexual assault case against the 20-year-old woman was heard in juvenile court because Melgar was less than 18 at the time he was charged with assaulting her, prosecutors said.
He was released from the Kane County jail late last week, where he had been held for 280 days since his February arrest on $75,000 bail.
It was not known if Melgar was transferred to a juvenile facility because juvenile court proceedings are confidential.