$1M bail set for Downers Grove man accused of assaulting 4-year-old girl in park bathroom

Bail was set at $1 million Saturday for a Downers Grove man charged with predatory criminal sexual assault of a child and attempted predatory criminal sexual assault of a child in Downers Grove parks.

Prosecutors say Matthew Schuten, 24, of the 4000 block of Roslyn Road, sexually assaulted a 4-year-old girl in 2012 and attempted to sexually assault a minor in 2015 and 2017.

In June 2012, Downers Grove police officers responded to Whitlock Park for a report of a 4-year-old girl who was touched by an unknown man inside the public women's washroom. Prosecutors said Schuten approached the child while she was washing her hands and told her that he was a doctor and wanted to give her a test. He then sexually assaulted the girl and fled the scene, prosecutors said.

The girl told a parent, who immediately contacted the police department. An investigation yielded a DNA sample.

In July 2015 at Hummer Park, about a mile from Whitlock Park, a man looked underneath a bathroom stall wall to watch an 8-year-old girl using the facilities, prosecutors said. That girl told a nearby adult and the man, who prosecutors say was Schuten, immediately fled.

On Aug. 22, prosecutors said, detectives saw Schuten enter the women's bathroom at Hummer Park and found him kneeling on his hands and knees watching a 7-year-old girl use the stall next to him. He was arrested after a brief altercation in which one officer was injured, prosecutors said.

"The allegations against (Schuten) are just sickening," DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin said, praising the work of Downers Grove police.

If Schuten posts bond, he will be forbidden from contact with the victims or any minors; barred from entering any school grounds, park, playground, park district, forest preserve, day care, or any facility or service provider with services directed toward children; and prohibited from entering any parking adjacent to any of those locations.

Schuten faces up to 60 years in prison if convicted. His next court appearance is scheduled for Oct. 3 in front of Judge Robert Miller.