State wants Elgin man committed for repeated sex crimes
A judge ruled Monday that there was probable cause to detain an Elgin man beyond his Nov. 27 release date from prison for sexually abusing a 6-year-old boy at the Elgin Mall in 2010.
After the prison term for Daniel Dawson, 36, is up, he will be transferred to the custody of the state’s Department of Human Services.
The Illinois Attorney General’s office wants Dawson classified as a sexually violent person under a 1998 law and held until he is no longer deemed a danger to society.
“His victims are strangers to him. He finds them in public places,” Assistant Illinois Attorney General Joelle Marasco argued to Judge James Hallock. “He has incredible difficulties controlling his sexually deviant behavior.”
Dawson pleaded guilty last year to fondling a boy in a bathroom at the Elgin Mall in August 2010 and was sentenced to 4½ years in prison. He received credit for good behavior and is due for release next week.
In October 2009, he was hanging around Channing Elementary School in Elgin and asked a woman what time students got out of school. Creeped out, she reported him to police and he gave conflicting stories to authorities and also was found to have a handwritten note in his pocket asking a girl to lift up her shirt and expose herself to him, according to court documents.
He was charged with attempted indecent solicitation of a child, a misdemeanor, and pleaded guilty to attempted battery and was sentenced to 180 days in jail, court records show.
Dawson also tried to lure a 9-year-old girl into the men’s washroom at Wing Park in Elgin in July 2003, records show. He asked the girl to come to the washroom, but she refused and told her mother. He pleaded guilty to felony aggravated battery and was sentenced to 2 months of sex offender probation.
He failed to complete counseling and came up positive for marijuana in a drug test, so he was sentenced to two years in prison for violating his probation.
Deborah Nicolai, a licensed clinical psychologist, testified that she interviewed Dawson in prison last month. She diagnosed him as a pedophile and said it was her opinion that he was substantially likely to offend again, according to court documents.
“He frequents places where children would be readily available — parks, school, malls, public restrooms,” Nicolai said.
Dawson is next due in court on Jan. 17 and a jury must conclude that is a sexually violent person. Under Illinois law, a person must have committed a sex crime, be diagnosed with a mental disorder, and a jury must decide it’s “substantially probable” the person will commit another sex crime.
Since the law went into effect, the Attorney General’s Office has had more than 330 people committed to the Department of Human Services.
Another case pending in Kane County is against Daniel Stage, a former North Aurora man who is out of prison for sexual abuse but awaiting trial. He is next due in court on Dec. 6.