Elgin child molester pleads guilty, gets probation

An Elgin man was sentenced to four years probation and ordered to register as a sex offender after pleading guilty Thursday to child-molestation charges.

Salvador Camacho's attorney, however, said his client pleaded guilty only to avoid the possibility of prison, which would amount to a "death sentence" because of the 66-year-old's health problems.

"He passed three different lie detector tests by licensed and certified examiners used on a routine basis by the Kane County state's attorney's office," defense attorney Tim Martin said. "He could not afford to take a risk at trial."

In pleading guilty to two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, Camacho admitted to fondling two young girls at his home on the 100 block of Westgate Drive.

The victims, whose relatives attended Thursday's court hearing, were abused between March 27, 2005, and April 30, 2008, when they were between the ages of 13 and 16, prosecutors said.

Kane County Judge T. Jordan Gallagher accepted the plea deal, which requires Camacho to receive sex offender treatment and have no contact with the victims nor unsupervised contact with other children. He was sentenced to 48 months of sex offender probation, but will be eligible for release in 36 months if he demonstrates good behavior, Gallagher said.

Camacho was arrested in May after an investigation by the Kane County Child Advocacy Center. He later was indicted on 24 felony sex crime charges, including five criminal sexual assault charges that carry a mandatory prison sentence of four to 15 years.

The charges Camacho admitted to Thursday were lesser felonies punishable by probation or three to seven years in prison. Martin said his client, who has severe diabetes and uses a respirator at night, would not have survived prison.