Day-care operator guilty of molesting young girl

The former operator of a Lake Zurich day-care center was convicted Thursday of sexually molesting a child left in his care.

Michael Feeney, 59, who operated the Kids Kare center with his wife in their home at 25 Mohawk Trail, faces at least six and as many as 30 years in prison when he is sentenced Feb. 22 for predatory sexual assault of a child.

Feeney's bond was revoked and he was taken into custody after the seven men and five women of the jury announced their verdict after about eight hours of deliberation.

Lake County Assistant State's Attorney Bolling Haxall said Feeney molested the girl numerous times between January 2005 and June 2006, when her mother removed her from the center.

Feeney was arrested in December 2006 after the girl described to her mother and grandmother how he touched the girl and made her perform a sex act.

Haxall urged jurors to believe the girl, now 7 years old, because of the graphic descriptions she offered.

"Little kids don't understand this stuff, but we adults do and we know exactly what happened," Haxall said. "She did not lie to her grandmother, to her mother, to the police, and she did not lie in this courtroom."

Haxall also said jurors should consider as proof of his guilt Feeney's spontaneous statement to police naming the girl as his accuser before police had indicated her gender or name.

But Feeney, testifying in his own defense Thursday, said a state Department of Children and Family Services official, who discussed the complaint with him before Lake Zurich police involvement, had told him all he needed to know.

Feeney said the official refused to give him his accuser's name, but said the child was older than 3 and had recently been taken out of the center.

Feeney said only three children had left the center in all of 2006, and his accuser was the only one older than 3 years old.

His attorney, Donald Cosley of Arlington Heights, said the girl's statements to police and others in the case were different in many regards.

"She is confused about how many times it took place, where it took place and when it took place," Cosley said. "Remember all the inconsistencies and what is here and what is not."

Feeney testified there was never a time when he was alone with any of the children.

But Feeney admitted during cross-examination he was alone with the girl almost every day when she came to the center because he drove her to kindergarten in the morning and picked her up in the afternoon.