Bolingbrook man gets 10 years in prison for sexual assault of 12-year-old girl that occurred between 2003 and 2004

November 6

JOLIET – Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow announces that a Bolingbrook man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for sexually assaulting a child in the early 2000s.

Fred Mack Jr., 65, was found guilty of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child at the conclusion of a jury trial on Aug. 23. The defendant sexually assaulted a girl who was 12-years-old and in the seventh grade sometime between 2003 and 2004.

The victim, who is now in her 20s, reported the assault to Bolingbrook police in 2016. She was prompted to file a report with authorities while she was working in a dance production that dealt with sexual abuse. The statute of limitations to file child sexual assault charges has been extended by state lawmakers on multiple occasions over the past decades and now stands at 20 years after the victim reaches the age of 18.

“This woman showed remarkable courage coming forward years after she was assaulted by this predator,” said State’s Attorney Glasgow. “Bolingbrook Detectives Ken Simpson and Tom Gallas conducted a first-rate investigation that enabled my prosecutors, Jeff Brown and Kelly Tebo, to finally bring him to justice.”

The defendant was a family friend and a pastor who sexually assaulted the child on many occasions between September of 2002 and July of 2004, according to testimony presented at trial and sentencing. The victim testified Mack molested her on as many as 100 occasions when she was left alone with him, some occasions predating the offense listed in the criminal charge. The defendant, however, disputed the number of times this occurred, telling investigators he only molested her on fewer than 25 occasions.

State’s Attorney Glasgow said this case should encourage other adult victims to come forward to report sexual assaults that occurred when they were children.

“These are often difficult cases to prove,” he said. “But the General Assembly has given us latitude with the statute of limitations so that predators who counted on the vulnerability and silence of their underage victims can still be held accountable.”