Carpentersville sex offender accused of trying to pick up teens

A convicted sex offender from Carpentersville was arrested Tuesday on charges he tried to pick up at least one teenage girl in his car, police said.

Nemensio Colon, 39, of the 500 block of Maple Avenue, was charged with being in a school zone as a sex offender, approaching, communicating, and contacting a child as a sex offender and for luring a minor, police said.

On Sept. 16, Colon stopped at Indian Lane and Navajo Drive in a red car and asked a girl for directions. He came back to the area a while later, asked the girl where she was going and whether she wanted a lift to school, police said. After the girl refused the ride, Colon drove off, police said.

On Monday, a girl walking to her bus stop told her parent about a suspicious car parked outside their house on Pawnee Road reports do not indicate whether this is the same girl from the Sept. 16 case.

The girl said the person driving the car had, within the past few weeks, asked whether she wanted a ride.

The parent followed the red car, which parked at Indian Lane, Pawnee Road and Sioux Avenue, police said.

All streets are near school bus stops around Sunny Hill Elementary School, police said.

The parent copied down the car's license plate, which registered to Colon, who has no children in Barrington Unit District 220, officials said.

District spokesman Jeff Arnett said there have been previous incidents of suspicious vehicles approaching students that have led officials to ask parents or students to take a cell phone photograph or to otherwise record the license plate of such vehicles.

Police arrested Colon Tuesday.

Court records show Colon pleaded guilty to criminal sexual abuse in 1997 that involved a child between 13 and 18 years old.

Records say Colon was sentenced to 30 months probation for that case, which originated in Carpentersville.

Wednesday morning, Kane County Judge Bruce Lester set Colon's bail at $70,000, which means Colon needs $7,000 to get out of jail while the case is pending.

He is due in court Oct. 7 at the Kane County Judicial Center.

If found guilty of any of the three offenses, he could spend between one and three years behind bars.

• Daily Herald staff writers Eric Peterson and Susan Sarkauskas contributed to this report.