Judge allows sex abuse suspect to return to Florida

A Florida man accused of traveling to Huntley for a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl he met online can return home while the case against him is pending, a McHenry County judge ruled Wednesday.

Citing the suspect's lack of criminal record, or means to support himself in Illinois, Judge Joseph Condon lifted a condition of Ervin A. Betancourt's bond requiring him to stay in the state until the charges against him are resolved.

Betancourt, 18, of Miramar, Fla., faces charges of grooming (enticing a minor into a sex act) and criminal sexual abuse in connection with a relationship he fostered with a 14-year-old Huntley girl over the past several months, police said.

Police launched an investigation into the relationship Aug. 3 after the girl's family reported her as a runaway. The investigation, police said, revealed that the girl and Betancourt had been corresponding over the Internet for several months, leading him to travel to Huntley earlier this month for a face-to-face meeting.

He and the girl, police said, later both boarded a bus headed back to his home near Miami. Police eventually caught up with them in Dalton, Ga., and arrested Betancourt.

His attorney, Eric Rinehart, said Betancourt still lives with his parents and is planning to attend college this fall.

At the request of county prosecutors, Condon ordered that Betancourt have no contact with the girl while the case against him remains open.

Betancourt could face one to three years in prison if found guilty or grooming and up to a year in the county jail if convicted of criminal sexual abuse. He is scheduled to return to court Sept. 21 for a likely arraignment.