MARION COUNTY — The attorney for a 16-year-old Salem man withdrew an earlier motion today in Marion County Court requesting a bond reduction in the case charging her juvenile client with sexually assaulting an infant.

Defense attorney Jessica Koester had filed a motion earlier this month on behalf of her client Justin Atteberry, requesting a reduction to his $250,000 bail. Atteberry pleaded not guilty that same day to the Class X felony charge of aggravated criminal sexual assault causing bodily harm.

Justin Atteberry (Source: MCSO)
Justin Atteberry
(Source: MCSO)

The defense demanded a jury trial, which was scheduled for April 18, and a delay in the case was attributed to the defense.

At the previous hearing Koester filed a demand for speedy jury trial, which started the trial clock.

According to Illinois statute, a defendant in custody must be brought to trial within 120 days of the date they are taken into custody. A defendant free on bond must be brought to trial within 160 days of the date they demand trial.

Atteberry was arrested in December after police and the Department of Children and Family Services investigated a report of an infant being sexually assaulted while in the care of Ms. Lyd’s Kids, and at home daycare operated by Atteberry’s mother.

Although he is a juvenile, Atteberry must be charged as an adult based upon the Juvenile Court Act requirements, and because of the Act, he is not entitled to privacy rights afforded juveniles.

While the Act prohibits him from being housed with adults a provision of his arraignment prohibits him from having contact with individuals under the age of 18, so he also cannot be housed at the juvenile detention facility in Franklin County. A compromise was reached in that he will be housed in a medical isolation cell at the Marion County Jail.