Former CPS employee charged with sexually assaulting 4 young girls
James Wilson Jr. | Chicago police
A former Chicago Public Schools security guard was ordered held without bail Thursday on charges he sexually assaulted at least four girls under age 12 since 2001.
Judge John Fitzgerald Lyke denied bail for James Wilson Jr., 67, on three felony counts of predatory criminal sexual assault and one felony count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse during a hearing at the Leighton Criminal Courts Building, 2650 S. California Ave.
"Let the record be perfectly clear, (Wilson) is presumed innocent," Lyke said. "But to listen to all this, over years, with so many minors, is mind-boggling. It shocks the conscience, if this is true."
Investigators contacted Wilson, who lives in Gresham, after three of the victims reported the assaults, according to Chicago police. Wilson turned himself in to police about 1:15 p.m. Tuesday at the Englewood District police station, 1438 W. 63rd St.
He inappropriately touched the first victim "on 15 to 20 separate occasions" in 2001 when she was 10 or 11 years old, according to Cook County court documents. He is also accused of exposing himself, asking for sex and offering money for sex.
The second victim was an 11-year-old student at a school where Wilson worked as a security guard in 2004, prosecutors said. He sexually assaulted her multiple times and took photos and videos of himself performing sex acts on her.
Wilson is accused of sexually assaulting the third victim multiple times between 2013 and 2015, starting when she was 7 years old, prosecutors said. He is accused of groping and trying to kiss a fourth victim on several occasions in 2006 when she was 11 years old.
Prosecutors said Wilson also forced a fifth girl, who was 11 at the time, to watch pornography in 2015.
Wilson was "the subject of an investigation by Chicago Public Schools for having inappropriate sexual conversations with minor students" in 2004 and 2009, according to court documents. He resigned from CPS in 2009 and the district's law department places a "do not hire" designation in his file.
A CPS spokeswoman confirmed Wilson's previous employment and said "he has not been employed by CPS since 2009," but did not immediately specify which school or schools he worked in.
His next court date is set for Sept. 5, according to court records.