A former Boystown security patrolman who’s accused of sexually abusing a 13-year-old-boy he met online has more trouble to deal with after police allegedly caught him using the Grindr dating app in violation of his bail bond. And, prosecutors have added 34 child pornography counts to the charges he’s facing.
Ronald Lye, 49, patrolled the Boystown bar strip for years as part of a private security force that was hired by the Northalsted Business Alliance. The security company hired him even though he is a convicted police impersonator, and the state had revoked his license to work as a security guard.
In May, prosecutors in suburban Kane County said Lye met a juvenile online and repeatedly drove the alleged victim to Lye’s home for sex this spring. A search warrant application that preceded Lye’s arrest said the alleged victim is a 13-year-old boy.
Prosecutors initially charged Lye with 13 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and two counts of traveling to meet a minor.
But prosecutors have amended their complaint, and Lye now faces two additional counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, 14 counts of Class X child pornography, and 20 counts of Class 2 child pornography, according to court records.
A Kane County judge held Lye in lieu of $275,000 bail, told him to stay away from anyone under the age of 18, and to stay off “all adult dating sites including Grindr.”
But, after Lye got out of jail, a female Aurora police officer who opened the Grindr app saw Lye’s profile pic with the user name “CDadventure,” prosecutors said.
When the cop messaged “CDadventure” via the app, Lye asked for her age and where she was from, then sent pictures of himself, according to prosecutors.
Lye was taken back into custody, and a judge increased his bail. He has since been rereleased, according to court records.
According to documents that police used to secure their initial search warrant in the case, Lye once asked the 13-year-old, “Why do I feel like I’m gonna be on ‘To Catch a Predator?'”
Investigators began looking at Lye after the boy’s parents caught the teen sneaking out of their home in early May, the search warrant application said. The boy allegedly told his parents that he was going out to meet a man named “Ron,” whom he met online. At the time, Lye’s Grindr user name was “Friends & more,” according to the warrant application, and he claimed to be 32-years-old.
Lye’s attorney, Fred Morelli, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.