An East Chicago man is facing decades behind bars for molesting a teen girl.
Hakeem D. Pittman, 28, was charged Monday with three counts of Level 1 felony child molesting, one count of Level 4 child molesting and Level 6 felony dissemination of matter harmful to minors.
He is in custody, held without bail. An initial court hearing was scheduled Wednesday.
The mother was crying, “hyperventilating” and yelling for cops on April 26 at the East Chicago police station. She said Pittman molested her daughter and sent the child sexual texts.
Her daughter’s behavior had been off in recent months, she said. When the girl said she needed to tell her something, the woman suggested she could write it in texts. Pittman had been touching her “inappropriately,” the girl told her.
The texts Pittman sent the child appeared to imply he had sexual contact with her. The girl told police Pittman had molested her eight times over two years, starting as a preteen. He raped her two months earlier.
As police spoke with her, Pittman texted her to delete the messages. The girl had an entire camera roll of screenshots of “sexually explicit” messages.
East Chicago Police took out guns before they went inside an apartment to arrest him.
“What happened, Hakeem,” his wife yelled.
“Man, it’s (the girl),” he told her. “This is about what I’ve been saying to (the child). I swear, I didn’t touch her, though.”
He declined to speak with investigators.
The girl told Lake County Sheriff’s Department Detective Jeremy Kalvaitis that in summer 2022, Pittman played “Truth or Dare” with her and tried to ask her to perform a sex act. When she declined, he “pressured” her to do it.
A few days later, he raped her, she said.
Pittman offered her money, presents or snacks for sex acts. Many of the text messages talked about past assaults and asked the child for more sexual acts.
He also sent her pornographic pictures and videos, the affidavit states.
mcolias@post-trib.com
