Man Charged With Sexually Assaulting Young Girls On South Side
CHICAGO (STMW) -- A northwest Indiana man was ordered held without bond Thursday after being charged with sexually assaulting two young girls for several years at their grandmother's South Side home.
Ernest Ortiz, 47, of Gary, Ind., was charged with two counts of predatory criminal sexual assault and Judge Laura Sullivan ordered him held without bond Thursday, according to a statement from the Cook County State's Attorney's office.
Ortiz, a convicted sex offender, is accused of sexually assaulting the girls, ages 5 and 10, multiple times at their grandmother's South Side home between 2011 and 2013, prosecutors said.
The children and another relative who witnessed the assaults reported the incidents, according to prosecutors. Ortiz was living with the children's grandmother at the time of the attacks, even though he was registered as a sex offender in Indiana.
He had been sentenced to 25 years in prison for a 1993 attack on a Chicago woman, according to prosecutors. In that case, Ortiz kidnapped, sexually assaulted and cut the woman with a razor—causing serious injuries, prosecutors said.
He faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted of the new sexual assault charges.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2013. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
