Will County police arrest registered sex offender

Will County Sheriff’s police arrested a registered sex offender living in Dwight on Friday after a three-year investigation into a sexual assault alleged to have occurred in 2013.

Craig Gregory, 49, was arrested “during the early morning hours” on charges of predatory criminal sexual assault and sexual assault, the sheriff’s department said in an announcement on its Facebook page.

The investigation began in January 2020 when “an outcry was made to sheriff’s deputies by a teenage girl that she was sexually assaulted by Gregory in the unincorporated Wilmington area” at the age of 9, police said.

Gregory became a registered sex offender after being arrested and convicted in Cook County in 2013, the same year as the alleged assault in the Wilmington area.

The Will County Children’s Advocacy Center interviewed the girl and determined her allegations to be credible, police said.

“Detectives with the Will County Sheriff’s Office attempted to speak to Gregory regarding these allegations in September of 2020, but he refused to cooperate in the investigation with detectives,” police said. “Detectives continued to pursue additional evidence and statements from individuals connected to this almost ten-year-old incident.”

Sheriff Mike Kelley said, “The detectives never gave up on bringing this case to a close for the victim.”

Police said Gregory did speak with detectives after being taken into custody. He was jailed in the Will County Adult Detention Facility in Joliet with bail set at $40,000.