Aurora cops: Man was seeking sex with minor
A 21-year-old Melrose Park man faces two felony charges after Aurora police said he traveled there to meet and have sex with an 11-year-old girl he befriended on Facebook.
Alonso Ayala, of the 10000 block of Lyndale Avenue, is charged with grooming and traveling to meet a minor. Grooming is the act of gaining a potential victim's trust.
Ayala is being held in lieu of $50,000 bail at the Kane County Correctional Center in St. Charles.
Police said a resource officer assigned to Waldo Middle School learned May 25 the girl had agreed to meet with Ayala after they exchanged several messages over two days on Facebook. Authorities said both Ayala and the girl misrepresented their ages; Ayala said he was 17 and the girl said she was 12.
Ayala's messages turned sexual, police said, and after turning him down several times, the girl agreed to meet him.
Police didn't know Ayala's identity until May 26 when they matched information from several sources with his online profile. It was at that time that police, posing as the girl, set up a meeting in a parking lot near Jackson Street and Melrose Avenue where Ayala was taken into custody around 6:40 p.m.
Ayala's next scheduled court date is at 9 a.m. June 11 at the Kane County Judicial Center in St. Charles.