Island Lake man denies posting phony messages from accuser

A former college police officer already facing charges he molested a teenage girl pleaded not guilty Thursday to new allegations he tried to trick authorities into believing his accuser still had romantic thoughts about him.

Marc W. Carder, 48, of Island Lake, asked for a jury trial on three felony counts of harassment of a witness stemming from messages about him posted on a pair of social networking Web sites.

Authorities say Carder, a onetime supervisor with the College of Lake County's police force, posted messages on the sites MySpace.com and Honeymoonwishes.com using the girl's identity. The messages indicated the girl, now 18, still has feelings for him.

Carder then had his attorney, who was unaware of his client's actions, contact police to say the girl was harassing him, authorities say.

McHenry County Sheriff's investigators say they eventually traced the messages back to Carder's home computer and arrested him in March.

Carder already was facing charges of predatory criminal sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual abuse stemming from a relationship with the girl between 2002 and 2006. He could be sentenced to as many as 35 years in prison if found guilty on both sets of charges.

He was fired from his police job after his arrest in the initial charges.

Carder, who has been held in the McHenry County jail since March 23 when a judge raised his bail to $250,000, is scheduled to return to court on both cases May 14.