Nov. 17--A Bellwood man who was on probation for domestic battery was ordered held on $1 million bail Monday after being charged with sexually assaulting a woman in the Loop early Saturday after following her from a CTA Red Line train.
Jason Hooks, 20, of the 3500 block of West Adams in the near west suburb, was arrested after Chicago police issued a community alert with still photos of the suspect from a CTA station and police were tipped off to his identity.
The attack happened about 3 a.m. Saturday after a 31-year-old woman exited a Red Line train at Harrison and State streets, and Hooks, who had been on the same train, followed her, according to police and Cook County prosecutors.
As the woman walked south in the 600 block of South Plymouth Court, Hooks allegedly grabbed her from behind and struck her in the head and body with a blunt object, according to Assistant State's Attorney Molly Donnelly. He dragged the woman to an alley, threw her to the ground and sexually assaulted her, Donnelly said.
The woman flagged down a witness who found her naked from the waist down, Donnelly said. The witness called 911, and the woman was taken by ambulance to Mercy Hospital.
The woman suffered a concussion, a broken nose, lacerations, rib soreness and swelling to her forehead, eye, face, lip and wrist, prosecutors said.
Surveillance video was recovered from the Harrison stop showing Hooks and the woman. After a community alert was issued, police garnered information about the suspect. Hooks was arrested Sunday morning, hiding in the closet of a home under a pile of clothes, Donnelly said.
Prosecutors said the woman identified Hooks as the attacker in a photo array and that Hooks admitted that the woman did not want to have sex with him.
Hooks had been sentenced to 18 months of probation for a misdemeanor domestic battery conviction in 2014. He was convicted of attempted theft in 2013 and given two years of probation. He had violated his probation in the cases, Donnelly said.
csadovi@tribpub.com
