Ex-cop accused of contacting victim

A former College of Lake County campus police officer charged with molesting a girl over a four-year span narrowly avoided a return to jail Friday over claims he had contacted his accuser.

McHenry County prosecutors alleged Friday that Marc W. Carder of Island Lake violated terms of his bond by approaching the girl as she was studying Monday afternoon at the Wauconda Area Library.

"He said they needed to sit down and talk and she said she didn't want to talk to him," Wauconda police officer Dale Leshinskey said.

Carder, 47, denied the allegations, telling a McHenry County judge that his accuser, now 17, approached him at the library. The girl, he claimed, has been sending him e-mails, some of them sexually suggestive, over the past four months.

"I attempted to leave and she attempted to talk to me," he said.

Judge Sharon Prather rejected prosecutors' request to increase Carder's $175,000 bond but warned him that another incident like the one this week would land him behind bars until his case goes to trial.

"No contact means no contact," she said. "You do not so much as say one word to this alleged victim."

Carder, who lost his job as a campus police supervisor because of the girl's accusations, faces charges of predatory criminal sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual abuse alleging he had sexual relations with the girl in 2002 and 2006.

A trial date has not been set for Carder, who could be sentenced to a maximum 30 years in prison if convicted. His next scheduled court appearance is Nov. 30 for a pre-trial status hearing.