Bolingbrook man charged with indecent solicitation of a child

A Bolingbrook man is accused of using the Whisper social media app to try to arrange a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl, officials said.

The girl, however, was really an Addison police officer, part of the Metropolitan Emergency Response and Investigation Team.

Anthony T. Monico, 25, of the 300 block of Whitewater Drive, was arrested Thursday and appeared in court Friday morning. DuPage County Judge Liam Brennan set his bail at $10,000, and ordered that if Monico is released, he is not to use the internet or email except for his work as a chemist at Argonne National Laboratory.

Monico faces two charges of indecent solicitation of a child and grooming.

According to Assistant State's Attorney Michael Fisher, the Addison police officer posted messages on Whisper, including one complaining about having to walk to school in the rain. Monico responded with “That sounds rough,” and eventually offered to give the girl a ride to school. Monico indicated he was 21, and asked the girl to send him a photograph of herself.

After receiving the photograph, which was actually a photo of another Addison officer, the interactions continued, Fisher said, including an exchange where Monico said he would let the girl drive his car if she would perform a sex act. They also talked about him buying her coffee at a Starbucks.

He also asked about her sexual preferences and told her about how aroused he was. They made plans to meet at the Brer Rabbit motel in Villa Park.

Fisher said Monico messaged the girl that he had researched the hotel and discovered a woman had been killed there by the notorious Ripper Crew in the 1980s. (The body of one of the four-man crime team's suspected victim was found in a field near the motel.)

Monico never went to the motel, Fisher said.

Investigators from the DuPage County Sheriff's Office interviewed Monico Jan. 9, and he told them it was all “just a fantasy,” and “he would like to think he would never do it,” Fisher said.

A search of Monico's phone showed research into the hotel and into Starbucks locations, Fisher said.

“We are aggressively and proactively — on all forms of internet and social media — looking for predators who use the internet to get our children out of our homes and into their grasp,” Sheriff James Mendrick said in a news release.

Monico's next court date is Feb. 14.