A Harvard man once accused of stalking a 14-year-old girl, and who was charged in October of following two teen girls in a Crystal Lake shopping center, is now accused of possessing images of child sex abuse, court records show.
Travis James Klemann, 37, is charged with possessing images of child sex abuse, Class X felonies, according to a criminal complaint filed in McHenry County court.
Klemann made a first appearance in court Friday and was denied pretrial release, according to a detention order signed by Judge Cynthia Lamb. Lamb said he poses a danger to the community specifically children.
Authorities said at that at 9:47 a.m. Dec. 24, Klemann disseminated four images of children he knew or should have known were younger than 18 “engaged in an act of sexual conduct,” according to the complaint.
When detaining him in the county jail, Lamb wrote that Klemann’s criminal history included a stalking no-contact order filed against him in 2017 by the mother of a 14-year-old girl. The mother said in the petition that Klemann, who was 29 at the time, approached her daughter at church and told her “‘the only reason he was there was because of her and that he was interested in her,’” according to court documents.
The mother wrote that the her daughter received message from Klemann.
Harvard police were notified and officers talked to Klemann and told him not to contact the girl anymore, according to court records, but Klemann allegedly texted her again and said he “wants to just be friends with her and that he was going to talk to her dad to see if it was OK to hang out with her,” the mother wrote.
About two weeks after being served with the order, he violated it by failing to stay 200 feet away from the girl, according to court records. A few weeks after that he violated the order again by using Instagram to “follow” or gain access to the girl’s private personal account, criminal complaints in the courthouse show.
The judge also wrote that Klemann had posed as a 13-year-old in “a chat room in order to communicate with minors.” Prosecutors said he used the name of “Kara” on a website called Chat Avenue.
The judge also noted an alleged incident in October for which Klemann has a pending misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct. Crystal Lake police said in a criminal complaint he followed two juvenile girls into two separate stores, including Daiso in the 5500 block of Northwest Highway. Police said he caused “the females to fear for their safety.”
The judge said Klemann “seeking out” images of child sex abuse and sharing it with others “creates an appetite for this type of material and support for the making of this material. No condition or combination of conditions can mitigate the real and present threat” he poses, the judge wrote.
Klemann “is unable or unwilling to obey court orders and the laws of the State of Illinois,” Lamb said. “GPS will not protect the entire community of children.”
Klemann, who did not have an attorney listed in court records, is due in court Wednesday. If convicted of a Class X felony he could be sentenced to prison six to 30 years.