Edward Izenstark
A St. Charles man is being held in jail on child sex crime charges after one Kane County judge ruled that another judge erred in letting the man live at home while awaiting trial.
Edward Izenstark, 37, of the 1100 block of Geneva Road, St. Charles, was taken into custody on Wednesday during a conducted by Judge D.J. Tegeler.
Izenstark was arrested June 25 on charges of indecent solicitation of a child, traveling to meet a child, grooming, soliciting a sex act and sexual exploitation of a child.
Authorities allege that Izenstark communicated with a 13-year-old boy via FaceTime calls and chat messages between July 1, 2023, and Aug. 12, 2023. According to authorities, Izenstark asked to see nude photos of the boy, offered to pay for sex, and arranged to meet up for sex in the parking lot of a trampoline park.
According to an Elgin Police Department report, Izenstark told police he was engaged in “fictitious role-playing.”
Initially released
At a first-appearance court hearing June 26, Judge Salvatore LoPiccolo ruled that jail was unnecessary to prevent Izenstark from being a danger to the victim or the community. He placed Izenstark on electronic home monitoring.
LoPiccolo prohibited Izenstark from having contact with minors, except for supervised contact with his own children. He also forbade him from using the internet or going to places likely to have children, such as parks.
Kane County prosecutors then asked for a review of the judge’s decision.
Izenstark moved in with his parents. His attorney, Earl Vergara, told Tegeler that Izenstark has no internet access there, and his new cellphone does not have internet capabilities.
Vergara said there’s no record from county probation officers that Izenstark has violated any of the conditions.
But Tegeler said LoPiccolo misinterpreted a recent appellate court ruling on pretrial release in another child sex crime case, believing he could only impose conditions of release, not detainment.
Conditions not enough?
The prosecutor argued that Izenstark’s GPS monitor would not prevent him from going anywhere. She also said Izenstark could use somebody else’s devices to access the internet.
Judge Tegeler noted that state law requires that people on home monitoring be allowed out two times a week to conduct personal business, such as shopping. There are often small groups of adolescent or teen minors, unaccompanied by parents, in stores, Tegeler said.
Tegeler also disputed Izenstark’s contention that he was role-playing. He said the trampoline park was a child-oriented business.
“It takes one time of one violation of a child to ruin a life,” the judge said. “I’m not going to allow that to happen on my watch.”
Tegeler was filling in Wednesday for Judge John Barsanti, who has been assigned the case.
The prosecutor said Wednesday that Izenstark had been the president of a middle-school parent-teacher organization and worked in schools as a paraprofessional.