Downers Grove man gets jail time after Wheaton Internet sex sting

A man was sentenced Thursday to 90 days in jail and ordered to register as a lifetime sex offender for trying to have sex with an underage girl he befriended on the Internet in a Wheaton police sting.

Edward M. Mandel, 31, of Downers Grove will be allowed to leave the DuPage County jail during the day for work. He must turn himself in next month to begin serving his sentence.

Police arrested Mandel in August 2007 after he arrived at a Wheaton park for a sexual rendezvous with a girl named "Katie" whom he believed to be 14 or 15 years old. The girl turned out to be an undercover Wheaton police detective posing as a minor on the Internet to nab child predators.

Mandel pleaded guilty Dec. 9, 2008 to indecent solicitation of a child charges. He faced a possible sentence of probation or up to five years in prison.

Mandel did not have a prior criminal record. A psychologist who performed Mandel's sex-offender evaluation found he did not pose a high risk of re-offending. DuPage Circuit Judge George Bakalis presided over Thursday's plea deal, reached between defense attorney Brian Telander and prosecutor Joseph Lindt.

After completing the jail term, Mandel must serve two years' of sex-offender probation, which requires stricter reporting guidelines.