A former Waterloo resident faces two felony charges in connection with alleged sex acts involving a minor female 15 years ago.

Daniel M. Schott, 50, of Mascoutah, was charged Dec. 13, 2019 in Monroe County with aggravated criminal sexual abuse (victim ages 13-16) and criminal sexual assault (consent).

That same day, Chester police arrested Schott on the Monroe County charges as he was leaving his job at Menard Correctional Center, the County Journal reported.

The charges allege that on July 1, 2005, Schott committed sex acts with a young girl who was not a family member while he lived in Waterloo. 

Schott posted bond on the charges and was released. He was arraigned and there was a contested preliminary hearing held this spring at the Monroe County Courthouse, during which Judge Dennis Doyle ruled there was probable cause to move the case forward.

“We’ve been in a waiting game due to COVID since,” Monroe County State’s Attorney Chris Hitzemann said of the case.

Schott is being represented by attorney Nick Brown of the Lawler Brown Law Firm in Marion.

In 2007, Schott was charged in Monroe County with aggravated criminal sexual abuse (victim under 13) in connection with a separate 2005 incident involving a different female. 

That case was dismissed in May 2007 due to the alleged victim recanting her statement. Schott was represented in that case by attorney John O’Gara.

Hitzemann said the alleged victim in the current case had actually contacted police the day of the alleged attack in 2005.

“The victim decided to do a follow-up of what, if anything, had happened to her case and went on judici.com to look up the defendant prior to the filing of our (current) case,” Hitzemann explained. “At that point, the victim saw that a case from 2007 had been dismissed and called our office to ask why the case had been dismissed.”  

Hitzemann said his office dug into the 2007 case and found it was a different victim, so it started to examine the 2005 matter.  

“We found the investigation file over at the Waterloo Police Department and discovered that the evidence for the case had been preserved,” Hitzemann said. “We went on to perform a thorough review of the prior investigation and investigated a little further, and I made the decision that charges were warranted.”