Elpidio “Juan” Contreras Wednesday vehemently denied that he molested three girls and even accused one of his victims of asking him to dance with him when she was 12.
“I have video of the girl blowing kisses and saying, ‘You are No. 1, Juan,’” Contreras said in Spanish.
The judge sentenced Contreras to 61 years in prison for sexually assaulting the girls after luring them with the hope of fame and fortune.
Flood said Contreras, 56, violated the trust the parents of the girls had in him to fulfill his “selfish needs.”
“He promised them singing lessons but that’s certainly not what these girls got,” Assistant State’s Attorney Elizabeth Ciaccia said.
Prosecutors on Wednesday called to the stand a former relative of Contreras who said she was raped by him starting at the age of 4 through 16.
Contreras was not charged with sexually assaulting the now 39-year-old woman.
Through tears, the woman told Flood she feels a lot of guilt for not telling any other authority figure beside her mother who ignored her cries for help.
“If I had spoken up sooner, this wouldn’t have happened to other girls,” the woman said.
Contreras, who hosted the “El Show De Juan Contreras ” or the “Juan Contreras Show,” was arrested in 2013 for molesting and taking lewd pictures of a girl he gave voice lessons to at his office in the 200 block of North Cicero Avenue.
More victims came forward afterward, including a woman who said Contreras assaulted her in a series of attacks that started when she was 11 in 1993.
http://www.fox32chicago.com/news/crime/88473209-story