Feb. 22--A 34-year-old man was ordered held on $350,000 bail after he was accused of grabbing two women's private parts Saturday at the Roosevelt Road station on the CTA's Red Line.
In the first incident, a woman passenger got on an elevator to ride up from the subway. Prosecutors said Mario Robinson, 34, was on the elevator moving around in an "erratic manner." He told the victim she had nice hair and then touched it. When the woman told him to stop, he grabbed her buttocks, and when she pushed his hand away he grabbed between her legs, prosecutors said.
The woman ran out of the elevator when the doors opened and called 911. As she was calling police, Robinson bumped into another woman and grabbed her buttocks. When she told him no, he tried to touch between her legs, but she turned, put her shoulder in his chest and pushed him away, prosecutors said.
Robinson then left the station heading westbound, but police found him about 15 minutes later inside a nearby Walgreens. Both victims identified him as their attacker, prosecutors said.
According to court documents, CTA video shows Robinson touching the first victim inside the elevator, and grabbing the second victim's buttocks.
Prosecutors said Robinson has seven prior felonies, including a 2013 aggravated battery conviction where he was sentenced to four years in prison. In 2009, he was convicted of aggravated battery of a government employee and also was sentenced to four years in that case.
Robinson was charged with criminal sexual abuse using force in the Saturday incident. He appeared Monday afternoon at a bail hearing where he was ordered held by Cook County Judge Adam Bourgeois Jr. on $350,000.
