Ringwood man, accused of abusing teen he met on Snapchat, released from jail pretrial

A 21-year-old Ringwood man who is accused of posing as a teenager on Snapchat to groom and then sexually abuse a 15-year-old girl was granted release from custody Aug. 1 after being detained in March.

Irin Ponce was indicted on six counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a person between the ages of 13 and 16 who was at least five years younger than Ponce, according to the indictment in McHenry County court. Those allegations are Class 2 felonies; Ponce also is charged with three counts of traveling to meet a child and grooming, court records show.

Authorities allege that Ponce met the 15-year-old girl on Snapchat in November and told her that he was 16. The two began a dating relationship and, on more than one occasion, Ponce sexually abused her against her will, according to charges against him read in court by Assistant State’s Attorney Julio Cantre at an initial court hearing March 28.

At that hearing, Judge Michael Chmiel agreed with Cantre that Ponce posed a threat to the alleged victim and any other young girls he comes in contact with. Chmiel found that “no condition or combination of conditions would mitigate the threat posed by the defendant.”

But on Aug. 1, Judge Mark Gerhardt allowed Ponce to be released with conditions. He must have no contact with the girl and comply with pretrial supervision with home confinement and electronic monitoring, Gerhardt said. Ponce also is ordered to comply with all sexual offender evaluation treatment and to have no access to the internet or social media, the judge said.

Among the arguments made by Ponce’s attorney, George Kililis, to release Ponce are that allegations alone are not sufficient enough to establish that no condition would lessen a defendant’s “posed threat.” The defense attorney also argued that a “finding of dangerousness does not automatically warrant pretrial detention” under the SAFE-T Act, according to the motion to reconsider Ponce’s jailing.

Kililis said Ponce is willing to comply with all conditions, including no “contact with the minor in question, her home or her school by personal, electronic or any third-party contact of any kind.” He also will abide by the conditions that he have no contact with other minors, remain in the county and comply with any sex offender treatment recommendations, the lawyer said.

Authorities said the girl told investigators that, in one encounter, Ponce was on top of her, and when she tried to push him off, he held her down by her arms, leaving bruises, Cantre said during Ponce’s initial court appearance.

Cantre said the girl told investigators, “He was hurting me, so I just let him do it.”

Cantre called Ponce “a predator” who was “unrelenting until he got what he wanted. ... She got sexually abused by an adult man.”

Ponce first was arrested in January, but because prosecutors said they did not have all the details of the allegations at that time, he was charged with misdemeanors and released. Since then, the charges were upgraded to felonies, and Ponce was rearrested in March and detained. In seeking his release in March, Assistant Public Defender David Giesinger argued that in the time Ponce was free, he did not violate any conditions.

In that case, Ponce was charged with domestic battery involving physical contact, a Class A misdemeanor, court records show. He is accused of kissing the same girl “on the lips on multiple occasions” knowing she was 15 “and could not legally give consent to the contact,” and he was 20 at the time, according to the criminal complaint.