Additional charges against sailor in molestation case

Additional charges were filed Wednesday against a sailor at Naval Station Great Lakes accused of molesting a teenage girl in Lincolnshire hotel.

Adam Matthews, 21, already charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault, now also faces child pornography charge related to pictures of another teenage girl police said he had.

Lake County Assistant State's Attorney Mary Stanton said Matthews, of Beaufort, S.C., was corresponding over the Internet with a 16-year-old girl in Georgia.

Stanton said investigators who were inspecting Matthews' computer after his arrest in the Lincolnshire case found e-mails the two exchanged, some of which contained lewd photographs of the girl.

He is charged with possession of child pornography and could be sentenced to up to five years in prison, Stanton said.

Matthews was originally arrested July 23 after meeting that day with a 14-year-old girl at the Homewood Hilton Suites in Lincolnshire.

The girl, who lives in Oakdale, Penn., and was in this area to see her brother graduate from basic training at Great Lakes, also met Matthews through the Internet, Stanton said.

The pair arranged to meet while she was in town, and Matthews rented a room in the hotel. They got together after she told her parents she was going to the pool.

That evening, her parents began searching for the girl and called police when they could not find her.

After a hotel employee found the girl wandering in a hallway, and other guests told police they had seen her with an older man earlier in the day, the girl told police she had been with Matthews.

Great Lakes police arrested Matthews later that day, and he has since been held on $250,000 bond.

Stanton said Matthews, who pleaded not guilty in both cases Wednesday, faces a mandatory prison sentence of four to 15 years if convicted in the Lincolnshire case.

Circuit Judge Victoria Rossetti scheduled a trial for Oct. 5 and ordered Matthews to appear in court Sept. 23.