Original reporting
Sex Crimes
Man, 23, charged with predatory criminal sexual assault of a child in Rock Island County
The county jail roster lists one count under 720 ILCS 5/11-1.40 and no bond. No disposition is recorded.
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Production note: Prepared from the Rock Island County public jail roster, retrieved from the county's booking portal for this report, and from the text of the cited Illinois statute. The county's record states no felony class, case number, docket number, court or arresting agency for this charge, and no disposition is recorded; the Class X classification and sentencing range are taken from the statute itself rather than from the county's record. Court-record enrichment was not attempted for this booking, so no search of court filings was performed and no conclusion about the existence or status of a court case should be drawn. One local news report previously cited for this event could not be retrieved at publication and is not relied on here. The source publishes the arrest and booking dates without times.
Dalton Eric Craig Ballard, 23, is listed on the Rock Island County jail roster on one criminal charge, with an arrest date of August 13, 2026. The roster is published by the county's public booking portal, and the booking record captured for this report carries the same date.
The roster lists the charge as predatory criminal sexual assault of a child, cited to 720 ILCS 5/11-1.40 and qualified on the record as involving no penetration. It records the arrest as made on view, and lists bond as "No Bond, $0.00", set by a judge. The roster publishes no case number, no docket number, no court, and no arresting agency for the charge.
Under the Illinois Compiled Statutes, Section 11-1.40 applies to a person 17 years of age or older, and covers either an act of sexual penetration or an act of sexual contact for the purpose of sexual gratification or arousal, where the victim is under 13 years of age. The statute makes the base offense a Class X felony carrying a term of imprisonment of not less than 6 and not more than 60 years, and sets longer terms where particular aggravating findings are made. That range is the sentence the statute provides upon conviction; it is not a statement about this case. The county's record states no felony class for the charge, so the classification here is taken from the statute the roster itself cites.
No disposition is recorded. The available records establish a booking and a charge and nothing beyond that: no plea, no finding, no hearing outcome and no court filing is reflected in what the county publishes.
A booking record describes an allegation made by law enforcement. It does not establish guilt and it is not a conviction. Ballard is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
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