Downstater arrested in Lake Co. child sex sting

A downstate man is in jail after driving to Lake County to have sex with an undercover police officer he thought was a teenage girl, authorities said Monday.

Mark S. Sarnes, 49, a factory worker from Pekin, was arrested Saturday and charged with indecent solicitation of a child.

If convicted, Sarnes faces a maximum 14 years in prison.

During the last week, Detective Karen Kates portrayed herself as a 15-year-old Lake County girl and began chatting with Sarnes over the Internet, sheriff's police said. The conversation eventually became sexual, and Sarnes asked if they could meet to have sex, police said.

He was arrested Saturday morning after arriving in central Lake County.

"They did not use a decoy," sheriff's police spokesman Sgt. Christopher Thompson said. "He just showed up and we were waiting for him."

Thompson declined to be more specific about where Sarnes was arrested.

Sarnes' bond was set Sunday at $50,000, and he remains in custody at the Lake County jail.