Gurnee man faces abuse charges after meeting victim on Facebook

A Gurnee man remains in Lake County jail on $100,000 bond after his sexual involvement with a teenager he met through Facebook, authorities said.

Joshua Britzman, 23, was arraigned Wednesday on aggravated criminal sexual abuse charges involving a 15-year-old girl he met on the social networking site. Britzman, of the 100 block of Greenhaven Lane, pleaded not guilty.

On Aug. 27, Britzman went to the victim's home in southern Wisconsin and picked her up. The couple went back to Britzman's Gurnee apartment where they had sex, said Mary Stanton, chief of the cyber criminal division in the Lake County State's Attorney's office.

The victim called her friend, who came to Gurnee with the victim's mother. The girl went to the Gurnee Police Department to report the attack, Stanton said.

The crime is a felony, punishable by three to seven years in prison. Britzman will appear in court Oct. 16 for pretrial proceedings for trial set for Nov. 16.