Tag Archives: sexual assault

Teen accused in Facebook Live assault to remain in custody

(CHICAGO) A 14-year-old boy accused of participating in the gang-rape of a 15-year-old girl that was streamed live on Facebook was ordered to remain locked up at a court hearing on Monday.

The boy’s mother, father, sister and brother were at the county’s Southwest Side juvenile courthouse Monday but did not attend the boy’s hearing, according to Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Emily Czerniejewski.

Associate Judge Patricia Mendoza scheduled the next hearing for April 28, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.

The boy, who was not in the courtroom, will remain in custody at the county’s juvenile detention facility.

The 14-year-old was arrested and charged Saturday with felony counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, manufacturing of child pornography and dissemination of child pornography.

Public Defender Andrea Lubefield objected to the media being in the courtroom, arguing that the boy’s “privacy rights and rehabilitation potential outweigh the media’s rights.”

“The media absolutely has a right to be in the room right now,” Czerniejewski countered.

Mendoza pointed out that Presiding Juvenile Justice Division Judge Michael P. Toomin had already signed off on the media being in the courtroom.

Meanwhile, an arrest warrant was issued for a 15-year-old boy over the weekend.

He was accompanied by his mother when turned himself in Monday morning at the Ogden District police station, according to police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. He has been charged as a juvenile with criminal sexual assault, and manufacturing and distributing child pornography.

He is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday. The boys have not been named because they are minors.

Police continue to search for others involved in the attack. At least five or six attackers participated in the assault on the girl, who police said was lured into the basement of a building not far from her home in the Lawndale neighborhood on March 19.

“The victim knew one of the offenders,” Chicago Police Cmdr. Brendan Deenihan said at a news conference Sunday. “I don’t want to go too much into detail, but I’m going to say she was lured into the residence, and then from there she was not allowed to leave and she didn’t consent to what occurred.”

One of the people police are investigating in connection with the assault is an adult, though Deenihan would not provide additional details.

“We have a very good idea of who these individuals are, but like I said, working with this victim at this time is very, very slow, and she doesn’t want to talk about what occurred for obvious reasons. It’s very difficult, and she’s traumatized. She’s going to need help for a long time after this,” Deenihan said.

Guglielmi said that “multiple videos were made,” and that others could also face charges of manufacturing and distributing child pornography.

The girl was found about 7:45 a.m. March 21 at the intersection of 16th and Independence by 10th District officers, police said. She was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital and subsequently was reunited with her family.

As many as 40 people watched online as the girl was assaulted, but none reported it to police, Johnson said.

“It just disgusts me that people can look at those videos and not pick up the phone and not dial 911,” Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said Sunday.

Johnson called the case “absolutely horrific.”

“The young men responsible should be ashamed of themselves. They’ve humiliated themselves, humiliated their families, and now they’re going to be held accountable for what they did,” Johnson said.

— Chicago Sun-Times

The Latest: Police probe alleged threats to assault victim

CHICAGO (AP) — A Chicago police official says investigators are looking into a mother’s claims that her daughter has been the target of online threats since being sexually assaulted in an attack streamed live on Facebook.

Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Wednesday that Superintendent Eddie Johnson has also reached out to the family to check on the girl.

The mother told The Associated Press earlier Wednesday that her daughter is scared to return home and the family is being harassed by neighborhood kids. She also says that since the attack, people have posted threats on Facebook that “they are going to get her” daughter.

No arrests have been made in the attack, which police say involved five or six young men or boys. Authorities say about 40 people viewed live video of the attack, and none of them reported it to the police.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

NYT: Donald Trump inappropriately touched 2 women

[van id=”politics/2016/10/12/women-accuse-trump-of-touching-inappropriately-new-york-times.cnn”]

According to a report from the New York Times, two women have accused Donald Trump of touching them inappropriately. Erin Burnett and Jason Carroll report.
By Daniella Diaz, CNN
WARNING: This story contains graphic language.
Two women told The New York Times in a report published Wednesday night that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump touched them inappropriately, allegations that were swiftly followed by a similar claim in People magazine.
The Times reported that Jessica Leeds and Rachel Crooks each had encounters with Trump in which he groped or kissed them without their consent. One of the alleged incidents occurred in 2005, the other more than 30 years ago.
People Magazine published a report later Wednesday night by one of its writers, Natasha Stoynoff, in which she alleged that she had been physically attacked by Trump at Mar-A-Lago while she was on assignment in December 2005 writing a profile of his first anniversary with his wife, Melania.
The Trump campaign issued a statement denying the allegations in The Times, saying the reports were politically motivated and threatening to sue the paper.
“It is absurd to think that one of the most recognizable business leaders on the planet with a strong record of empowering women in his companies would do the things alleged in this story, and for this to only become public decades later in the final month of a campaign for president should say it all,” said Jason Miller, a Trump spokesman.
The campaign did not respond to request for comment regarding the People Magazine story, but a Trump spokesperson told People, “This never happened. There is no merit or veracity to this fabricated story.”
CNN has not yet independently confirmed either The New York Times or People Magazine accounts.
The women chose to tell their stories after Trump told CNN’s Anderson Cooper during the second presidential debate “no, I have not,” when asked repeatedly did he ever “kiss women without consent or grope women without consent.”
Trump told The New York Times reporter: “None of this ever took place.”
An attorney for Trump demanded a “full and immediate retraction and apology” from the Times.
“Your article is reckless, defamatory and constitutes libel per se,” attorney Marc E. Kasowitz wrote in a letter to Dean Baquet, the executive editor of The New York Times. “It is apparent from, among other things, the timing of the article, that it is nothing more than a politically-motivated effort to defeat Mr. Trump’s candidacy.”
Trump is also threatening to sue The Palm Beach Post over the publication of another incident of alleged groping.
Jennifer Palmieri, Hillary Clinton’s campaign communications director, issued a statement in the wake of the report, saying, “This disturbing story sadly fits everything we know about the way Donald Trump has treated women. These reports suggest that he lied on the debate stage and that the disgusting behavior he bragged about in the tape is more than just words.”
The Times report comes in the wake of an “Access Hollywood” videotape, obtained Friday by The Washington Post, in which Trump is heard making sexually aggressive comments about women. He recounts how he tried to “fuck” an unidentified married woman before bragging that he is “automatically attracted to beautiful (women)” and just starts “kissing them.”
According to The Times, Jessica Leeds, who was 38 at the time but is now 74, said that she was on the same flight as Trump, sitting next to him in first class.
She told The Times about 45 minutes after takeoff, Trump lifted the armrest, moved toward her and then began to grope her. The Times wrote, Trump “grabbed her breasts and tried to put his hand up her skirt,” according to Leeds’ account.
“He was like an octopus,” she told The Times. “His hands were everywhere.”
Crooks told the Times she was kissed by Trump when she was a 22-year-old receptionist at Bayrock Group, a real estate investment and development company in Trump Tower in Manhattan. They met outside the elevator in 2005 — she introduced herself and then they shook hands, but Trump would not let go, she said.
Instead, he began kissing her cheeks and then he “kissed me directly on the mouth,” she told the Times.
“It was so inappropriate,” Crooks said. “I was so upset that he thought I was so insignificant that he could do that.”
Neither of the women pursued legal action, but both told friends and family, who also spoke to The Times. The newspaper said Cooks described her experience immediately after it occurred while Leeds did so more recently.
Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s former campaign manager who is now a CNN contributor, told Don Lemon Wednesday he doubted the events occurred.
“I don’t think it happened,” he said on “CNN Tonight.” “Donald Trump said it didn’t happen. And I think the people on the plane would have seen something like that occur if an octopus was assaulting a person on a plane.”
In the “Access Hollywood” video, Trump bragged about trying to have sex with a married woman and being able to grope women.
“When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything … Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything,” Trump said in the footage.
Also in the wake of Friday’s leak, one woman who CNN anchor Erin Burnett has known for years told her she had a similar experience with Trump.
The woman — who asked not to be identified — met Trump in a boardroom in Trump Tower and another man — a colleague of Burnett’s friend — was in the boardroom at the time of the incident.
The woman told Burnett: “Trump took Tic Tacs, suggested I take them also. He then leaned in, catching me off guard, and kissed me almost on the lips. I was really freaked out. … After (the meeting), Trump asked me to come into his office alone. Was really unsure what to do. … Figured I could handle myself. Anyway, once in his office he kept telling me how special I am and gave me his cell, asked me to call him. I ran the hell out of there.”
Since Trump’s recorded remarks leaked, he has lost the support from members of his own Republican Party and faced criticism about his past treatment of women.
He argued at the second presidential debate that his comments were only “locker room talk” and that he never has sexually assaulted a woman.

The-CNN-Wire ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.

Army Specialist charged with sexually assaulting young female relative

(WHEATON) An active-duty soldier sexually assaulted a young female relative over a period of more than two years while staying at her family’s home in west suburban Oak Brook, according to prosecutors.

Army Specialist Andrew Hui, 36, of Oak Brook, was ordered held on a $750,000 bond Tuesday by Judge James Orel, after he was charged with one count of predatory criminal sexual assault and one count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, according to the DuPage County state’s attorney’s office.

From April 2011 through June 2013, “Hui sexually assaulted his victim on multiple occasions while he was staying with the victim’s family at her home in Oak Brook,” a statement from prosecutors said.

The incidents “came to light when the victim alerted her father what Hui had allegedly done to her,” according to prosecutors. Her father called Oak Brook police, who contacted the DuPage County Children’s Center.

Hui was arrested without incident Tuesday afternoon and is next scheduled to appear in court June 22 before Judge Liam Brennan.

“What is particularly disturbing in this case is that the accused is not only a trusted family member, but he is also an Army Specialist and as such was looked up to by his victim,” state’s attorney Robert Berlin said in the statement. “He allegedly repaid that trust and admiration by sexually assaulting his victim in the most despicable manner imaginable.”

Police investigate report of sexual assault at St. Francis de Sales High School

(CHICAGO) Chicago Police are investigating a report of a sexual assault at St. Francis de Sales High School on the Far South Side in late March.

The incident allegedly involved an 18-year-old male victim in a school locker room about 3 p.m. March 23, a source told the Chicago Sun-Times. The victim allegedly was attacked by five other males, police said. A de Sales parent and school representatives reported the incident to police on Tuesday, police said.

Police had no one in custody in connection with the incident Wednesday.

The school issued a statement on its website Wednesday:

“Dear School Families,

The safety and well-being of our students at St. Francis de Sales High school is a top priority. Yesterday, April 28, after we completed an extensive investigation of a reported bullying incident, consequences were imposed on all students involved.

Our students are educated in a community of faith committed to academic excellence and our caring environment enables students to feel safe and be successful. It is important for the St. Francis de Sales community to be mindful of the care and concern we show towards everyone. I hope you will take time to discuss with your child the sense of safety at St. Francis de Sales, as well as the treatment of fellow classmates.”

15-year-old boy charged with sexual assault on Blue Line

(CHICAGO) A 15-year-old boy who turned himself in to police has been charged as an adult with the sexual assault of a 41-year-old woman on a Blue Line train on Monday afternoon.

Deshawn Isabelle faces one count of aggravated criminal sexual assault and one count of robbery, both felonies, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County state’s attorney’s office. He is scheduled to appear in bond court Thursday.

About 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, the teen—whose named was not released by police because he is a minor—went with his guardian to turn himself in to police after seeing his picture in the media, police said.

About 3:10 p.m. Monday, the 41-year-old woman got on an eastbound Blue Line train at the Oak Park Avenue station, police said. Soon after, a male who got on the train at the Forest Park station attacked her from behind.

He knocked her to the ground, sexually assaulted her and then robbed her of her iPhone and cash, police said.

After the attack, he got off the train at Cicero. He then rode a westbound train back to the Austin station, police said.

Woman sexually assaulted, robbed on West Side Blue Line train

Police are searching for a male who sexually assaulted a woman on a Blue Line train Monday afternoon. | Chicago Police photo

(CHICAGO) A woman was sexually assaulted on a Blue Line train bound for the Loop Monday afternoon, according to a newly issued alert from Chicago Police.

About 3:10 p.m., a 41-year-old woman got on an eastbound Blue Line train at the Oak Park Avenue station, police said. Soon after, a male who got on the train at the Forest Park station attacked her from behind.

He knocked her to the ground, sexually assaulted her, and then robbed her of her iPhone and cash, police said.

After the attack, he got off the train at Cicero. He then rode a westbound train to the Austin station, police said.

The suspect was described as a black male, wearing a gray and blue Columbia jacket. He wore blue jeans and gym shoes with green laces, police said.

Anyone with information on the assault is asked to call Area North detectives at (312) 744-8261.