Hobart man acquitted in child molesting case; guilty of misdemeanor battery

A Hobart man got a split verdict Tuesday in a child molesting case.

Carlos Villarreal, 39, of Hobart, was acquitted of child molesting but convicted on a misdemeanor battery charge, his lawyer Steve Haddad said.

His sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 15.

In a charging affidavit, Hobart Police wrote the preteen girl told her parents Villarreal had been “touching” her several times in summer and fall 2020 at his house.

In the summer of 2020, he closed a bedroom door and started “tickling” the girl under her shirt and bra, an affidavit alleges, and then held her when she tried to get away.

She said something similar had happened “many times,” including in October 2020.

The child accused him of groping her on Oct. 30, 2020.

Villarreal pleaded not guilty and denied the accusations, Haddad said. The misdemeanor battery count was a last-minute instruction — or lower charge the jury could also consider.

After he was charged in January 2021 in this case, Hobart Police arrested him in a SWAT raid in August 2021 at a home on the 200 block of S. Virginia Street. He had a warrant in North Carolina for sexual offense on a child and indecency involving a child. Hobart Police got a tip Villarreal was packing up a van that day.

That case was dismissed in 2022, Haddad said.

Villarreal was sent back to Lake County from North Carolina in 2022. Haddad said he would argue for time served in the Lake County case, based on just over a year he spent in jail in North Carolina.

mcolias@post-trib.com