Child sex assault charges filed in Tazewell

Sept. 06--Two Peoria County men face prosecution for unrelated child sex crimes they allegedly committed in Tazewell County last year.

One of the men, Dale Lucht of Bartonville, was indicted by a grand jury last week on four counts of predatory criminal sexual assault of a girl under age 13, a Class X felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison.

Lucht, 32, also is charged with three counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of his alleged victim. Charges initially filed in the case last March were replaced by the new indictment. He's been in custody on $500,000 bond since last April.

Lucht is accused of committing the crimes in Pekin over a 15-month period ending in October 2016. Further details of the charges were not publicly available. Lucht is next due in court on the case on Sept. 28.

In the second case, Chad Freres, 40, of Princeville, was charged last Thursday with one count of forcing sexual contact on a girl under age 17.

Freres had met the girl while on a mission trip to Haiti that she also took with her parents in April 2016, according to a prosecutor's court affidavit. He offered to train her at a gym he owns and began sending her sexually related photos by email, the affidavit stated.

Freres allegedly abused the girl when the two went hiking in the Mackinaw area in June 2016. After the girl told her parents what happened, her father contacted Freres' wife, who said the allegations were true and that Freres was "very sorry it happened," the affidavit stated.

The girl's parents waited until this past January to report the incident to police.

Freres is free on $25,000 bond pending his next court appearance Oct. 5 on a charge of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, punishable by up to seven years in prison.

Follow Michael Smothers at Twitter.com/msmotherspekin

___

(c)2017 Pekin Daily Times, Ill.

Visit Pekin Daily Times, Ill. at www.pekintimes.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.