A Woodstock man, accused of making plans to meet a person he believed was a young girl for sex, pleaded guilty to indecent solicitation Friday and was sentenced to two years of probation and 180 days in jail.

Jesus Cortez, 36, is required to serve half of his jail sentence, which he was ordered to begin April 24. He also was ordered to register as a sex offender, participate in sex offender-specific counseling and have no contact with children without another adult present who has been approved by court services, according to a judgment order filed in McHenry County court.

A charge of grooming was dismissed in exchange for the guilty plea, records show.

Cortez was arrested in January 2023 during a sting operation planned and executed by McHenry County’s Human Trafficking Task Force, authorities said at the time.

Authorities said between Nov. 2 and Dec. 28, 2022, Cortez used an online service to solicit someone he thought was a child to perform a sexual act. He was arrested after a weeks-long investigation that included covert conversations and undercover operations, authorities said.

Though Cortez believed he was communicating with a child, he was in fact exchanging messages with a member of the task force who claimed to be a teenager, Woodstock Chief of Police John Lieb said at the time of Cortez’s arrest.

Authorities began investigating Cortez after his online behavior “gained the attention” of online monitoring systems, authorities said. Because he is a Woodstock resident, the case was referred to the McHenry County Human Trafficking Task Force and the Woodstock Police Department, Lieb said.

While on pretrial release in this case, Cortez was charged with possession of a controlled substance. This case was dismissed Friday, records show.