Man pleads innocent in Internet sex case.(News)

Byline: Tony Gordon Daily Herald Legal Affairs Writer

A Waukegan man accused of soliciting sex over the Internet from someone he believed was a child pleaded not guilty Thursday in Lake County Circuit Court.

Darwin Calilap, 26, of 1633 Partridge St., is charged with attempted aggravated criminal sexual abuse in the June 18 incident, Assistant State's Attorney Christen Bishop said.

Calilap, who police said was communicating under the username "GINN08," was exchanging computer messages with Lake County Sheriff's Detective Rick White for about one hour that day, Bishop said.

Bishop said Calilap asked White, who portrayed himself in the chat room exchange as a 14-year-old boy from Beach Park, to meet him for sex at the Illinois State Beach Park in Zion.

Calilap told White he would be driving a black Mitsubishi Eclipse and described the clothes he would be wearing for the meeting he scheduled for 1:30 p.m. that day, Bishop said.

Undercover police were watching as a black Eclipse with a lone occupant arrived in the park parking lot about 1:15 p.m. and waited for several minutes before leaving, Bishop said.

Police stopped the car as it exited the park, Bishop said, and found Calilap was driving the vehicle and wearing the clothing he described to police.

Police said Calilap told them he had gone to the park planning to meet a 14-year-old boy for the purposes of sex.

Associate Judge George Bridges told Calilap, who is being held on $50,000 bond, he faces up to five years in prison if convicted of the charges and ordered him to appear in court again July 29.

He is the eighth person to be charged with Internet solicitation of sex in similar stings by Lake County detectives since spring 1998.