WHEATON, Ill. -- A former Hanover Park paramedic who claimed to have saved a 12-year-old girl hit by a car in 1997 now is charged with sexually abusing her.

The girl, now 17, befriended Earl Burney, after the accident and called him her "guardian angel." But now she accuses him of repeatedly raping her in December and January when she came to his house to baby-sit his children.

"I thought he was my hero," she said Friday after a DuPage County judge refused to lower his bond from $250,000. He is being held in DuPage County Jail for aggravated criminal sexual abuse.

His lawyer, Mace Kavvadias, denied the charges but would not comment further. If convicted, Burney could face anywhere from probation to seven years in prison.

The girl's family now questions whether Burney, 53, ever helped their daughter at all. Fire officials say they have no record that Burney, who claimed to have administered CPR while he was off-duty, was even a witness to the accident.

"There's absolutely no documentation to support this claim," Hoffman Estates Deputy Fire Chief Robert Gorvette said. "There's no indication that anyone rendered first aid before we got there."