Downers Grove man charged with sexually assaulting teen girl
Bail has been set at $500,000 for a Downers Grove man charged with sexually assaulting and abusing an adolescent girl who was known to him.
Joseph A. Gutierrez, 38, of the 4900 block of Florence Avenue, faces five counts of criminal sexual assault of a family member younger than 18 and five counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.
If convicted of all charges, he could be sentenced to 23 to 30 years in prison, according to DuPage County Assistant State's Attorney Bridget Carlson. She had asked Judge Ann Celine O'Halloran Walsh to set bail at $750,000.
To be freed from jail, Gutierrez will have to post $50,000 bond, and would have to wear a GPS monitor and avoid contact with the victim and anyone younger than 18.
Carlson told Walsh the abuse began when the girl was in fifth grade and increased two years later.
Carlson said the defendant told investigators he would purchase morning-after contraceptive medication for the girl and gave her marijuana.
The girl's mother questioned her this spring about marijuana use, and that's when the girl revealed the abuse. The mother also discovered sexual texts from the defendant on the girl's phone, Carlson said.
"We are obviously looking at a pattern of abuse here that is lengthy in the least," she said.