Sex offender charged with abusing teen in West Chicago

A West Chicago sex offender has been charged with sexually abusing a teen who had gone missing for several days.

Joseph Simmons, 26, of the 300 block of Chippewa Lane, was ordered to be detained pretrial Friday by DuPage County Judge Joshua Dieden.

Simmons is charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse.

According to court records, a 16-year-old Chicago girl who had been missing for three days was found at a West Chicago gas station April 7.

She told police she had taken a train to West Chicago to have sex with Simmons, because Simmons had threatened to send videos of the two of them having sex to her father.

The girl said she met Simmons in Chicago in November 2024.

A prosecutor wrote, in a petition for detention, that the victim was a “vulnerable” teen.

The petition said Simmons took her to an apartment in a senior-citizen residence where he was staying. When she decided to go back home, he took her phone away and forced her to perform oral sex on him.

He took her to his mother’s home, then fled when he thought a relative was going to turn him into police, according to the petition. Police found him in a stolen car, according to the petition.

His next court hearing is May 19.