Man gets 10 years in prison for sexual assault of child over whom he was in a ‘position of trust’

A man who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a McHenry County child was sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender for life.

Arturo Martinez-Ortiz, 59, pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child younger than 13, a Class X felony, records in McHenry County court show. Martinez-Ortiz is listed in court records with a Riverside, California, address, but jail records list him as homeless.

In exchange for his guilty plea, other charges were dropped, including an additional count of predatory criminal sexual assault, indecent solicitation and aggravated criminal sexual abuse, according to the judgment order signed by Judge Tiffany Davis.

The child told a teacher in 2022 that she had been sexually abused, according to a news release from the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office.

Martinez-Ortiz was accused of assaulting the child once at his home in California and once in McHenry County. He held a “position of trust and confidence” with the child, according to a 2nd District Appellate Court appeal of his pretrial detention.

The appeal, citing details presented by prosecutors at his first court appearance after his February 2024 arrest, said that in a phone call with the child’s mother, Martinez-Ortiz “admitted there had been inappropriate contact between him and [the child] in December 2021, although he claimed that [the child] had initiated the physical contact.”

A defense attorney at that hearing had countered that prosecutors “mischaracterized” the call. Martinez-Ortiz “denied any wrongdoing, saying that he believed [the child] accidentally touched his private parts during a game but that he denied the allegations made against him,” according to the appeal.

The child gave graphic descriptions of what Martinez-Ortiz had done to her in an interview at the Children’s Advocacy Center in McHenry County. She said she feared him coming to her home for Christmas and a relative’s birthday, and worried for a younger sibling. The child said Martinez-Ortiz told her “not to tell her parents about the touching and especially not to tell her mother,” according to the appeal.

He is required to serve 85% of his prison term followed by three years to natural life of mandatory supervised release. He will receive credit for 212 days in custody of the county jail, according to the judgment order.