Sex Offender Visited Minooka's Lake Chaminwood: Complaint

A 34-year-old convicted sex offender who lives in Channahon was recently charged with another crime after the Will County Forest Preserve Police Department said they caught Randall S. Manion visiting a forest preserve in Minooka when he was not supposed to be there. On September 13, prosecutors charged Manion, of 24122 North Burr Court, with one count of being a sexual predator in a public park. Back on August 1, forest preserve police were on routine daytime patrol when noticed a young man hanging out by himself near a pavilion shelter in Minooka's Lake Chaminwood Forest Preserve. That man, identified in court records as Manion, put his head down and tried to walk away from the area, as if he was trying to avoid being detected by the officers, the police said.

Authorities noticed his vehicle nearby and soon discovered Manion was a registered sex offender who is forbidden from frequenting public parks and forest preserves. Upon further questioning, Manion admitted he was not supposed to be visiting the Lake Chaminwood Forest Preserve, but that he had gone there anyway, police told Patch. According to Will County Forest Preserve Police Lt. Dave Barrios, Manion was alone at Lake Chaminwood, and there were no children present anywhere in the immediate area. Manion was arrested on the misdemeanor offense and released on his own recognizance.

According to the Illinois Sex Offender website, Manion was in his late twenties when he committed his sex crime against a 34-year-old vulnerable adult here in Will County. Manion's victim was unable to consent to sex, the website states. Back in February 2012, Channahon police arrested Manion on a warrant charging him with felony counts of aggravated battery and criminal sexual abuse stemming from an incident at the Mugz Hideout parking lot. In 2013, Manion pleaded guilty to the crimes, court records state.

For other recent stories on Will County sex offenders who were busted at public parks, forest preserves:

• Plainfield Sex Offender Was At Mather Woods: Sheriff
• Sex Offender Joseph Brace Arrested By Forest Preserve

Image of Randall Manion via Illinois Sex Offender Information website