A 51-year-old Chicago man has been charged with multiple felonies after he solicited an undercover Cook County Sheriff’s Police officer who was posing as a
teenage boy on a dating app, Sheriff Thomas J. Dart announced today.
Matthew Baldwin, of the 4600 block of North Dover Street in Chicago, was arrested on Thursday, Oct. 14, by Sheriff’s Police after he arranged to meet a person he thought was a 15-year-old boy for sex, according to the investigation.
On Sept. 10, Baldwin initiated a conversation with an investigator from the Sheriff’s Police Special Victims Unit who was posing as a 15-year-old male on a dating app. The conversation moved from the app to another chat app, where the conversation periodically for the next several weeks. During this time, Baldwin sent explicit messages describing sexual activity he wished to engage in with the person he believed was a minor boy, suggested that the two meet, and agreed not to tell the boy’s mother.
On Oct. 14, the undercover investigator arranged to meet Baldwin near Baldwin’s residence. Investigators took Baldwin into custody when he arrived at the predetermined location. After he was issued his Miranda warning, Baldwin told investigators that he believed the person he was chatting with was a 15-year-old male, that he knew he shouldn’t be talking with a minor, and that he intended to engage in sexual acts with the minor once they met.
Baldwin was charged with one count of attempt aggravated criminal sexual abuse, two counts of indecent solicitation of a minor, one count of traveling to meet a minor, and one count of grooming of a minor.
He appeared for a bond hearing on Friday, Oct. 16 for a bond hearing at the George N. Leighton Criminal Courthouse where he was issued a $150,000 D bond with electronic monitoring. Baldwin posted 10% bail and is in the process of being place on electronic monitoring.
The public is reminded that the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty by the government in a court of law.
