ELDORADO—A seven-year-old little boy telling relatives he’d “had enough” of what a friend of the family was doing to him was the impetus for bringing an Eldorado man into custody and ultimately, to serious charges of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.
Sources close to the family of the little boy told Disclosure that this past Sunday, the boy advised members of his family that he’d “had enough” and needed to tell them what James G. Roberts, 69, of Indiana Street in Eldorado, had been doing to him for the past several months, the final incident alleged to have occurred Saturday, March 17, 2013. The boy detailed sexual abuse that he and his six-year-old sister had experienced, and immediately, family called the police to report the case.
Authorities began to search for Roberts and found him the next day. Illinois State Police authorities were notified (since Eldorado’s chief Freeman Shannon Todd Deuel doesn’t necessarily handle such investigations) and Roberts was arrested on preliminary sexual assault charges. It’s been reported to Disclosure that Roberts told all, and “didn’t display any remorse” or make any excuses for his behavior. Sometimes in these cases, that can be a good thing, sometimes a bad thing. It’ll depend on how it plays out in court.
In Saline County Circuit Court, Roberts was charged formally today (March 20) with four counts: Two Class X Predatory Criminal Sexual Assault of a victim under the age of 13, and two Class 2 felony Aggravated Criminal Sexual Abuse of a victim under the age of 13. Three of the charges date back to October, with the last dating to this past Saturday.
Sadly, our sources indicate that there may be a third victim in the area, another family member of the two children, this one a four-year-old, but no charges alluding to such have yet been filed.
Eldorado sources indicate that Roberts is a retired trucker who has lived all over the country and has quite a few ex-wives and subsequent children in far-flung states like Georgia. However, he portrays himself to people he’s getting to know as a poor old grandfatherly figure whose family won’t let him see his grandchildren, so he’s partial to the children he comes in contact with in his current hometown of Eldorado. Further, he makes a living as a handyman, and so looking for odd jobs, and carrying them out, brings him in contact with young children whose parents may end up feeling somewhat sorry for the old guy, then let him hang out with their little kids, resulting, in this case, in the alleged abuse after having been a “family friend” for the past 10 years.
However, Disclosure was told that there exists the possibility that Roberts has “done this kind of thing all his life” and may have other victims in the area or in other states. Some of the states Disclosure has tracked him down in include Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Michigan and Indiana. Thus far, no criminal activity of the nature of this case has been found in any of those states, but we’re still looking.
Court dates for Roberts are pending; continue checking back.
(Editor’s note: Interestingly, those bringing this case to Disclosure‘s attention did so because they saw a piece about Roberts on the Evansville newspaper’s website YESTERDAY, after Roberts’ arrest but before filing of formal charges. These folks were disturbed that a media outlet in Evansville would have the news before any of the local news outlets, including Disclosure, and so advised Disclosure of the pending charges. Disclosure advised that if the ISP agent working the case was Rick White out of Carmi, that would be why Evansville had it, as Evansville’s Illinois stringer, Len Wells, is a goodbuddy of White and is someone to whom White leaks information regularly. Since White has had a lot of adverse publicity lately with multiple civil lawsuits being filed against him in federal court, he apparently leaked the news of Roberts to Wells so that there might be a little bit of press that wasn’t so unfavorable about White and the shoddy way he handles child sex cases. It appears ISP Dist. 19 knows about White’s leaks to Wells, as it’s been ongoing for years now, even about inaccurate things, and nothing has been done about it…yet a compadre, Greg Hanisch, was disciplined two years ago for “leaking” something to Disclosure; read this article to learn what it was. Disclosure, having learned of the story last night, was able to confirm today that White is the agent assigned to this case.)