May 12--A passenger entered a Red Line train as a woman was being sexually assaulted but walked back out as the woman screamed for help, Cook County prosecutors said Tuesday at a hearing for a suspect charged in the Sunday attack.
The attacker fled to the next car, leaving his cellphone behind, and the woman alerted a CTA worker at the Clark/Division stop, prosecutors said.
The next day, a CTA security guard recognized a man from surveillance photos as matching the description of the attacker as he stood on a platform at the Chicago stop on the Red Line, prosecutors said.
The man, Ronald Sparks, 34, of the 7700 block of South Throop Street, was taken into custody and charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated battery to a transit passenger and unlawful restraint, according to prosecutors. He was ordered held Tuesday on $1 million bail.
During the court hearing, prosecutors detailed how the 27-year-old woman fiercely fought back when she was attacked around 5 a.m. Sunday after getting on the train at Fullerton.
Sparks, the only other person in the car, waited until the doors closed and then approached her from behind, said Assistant State's Attorney Kim Przekota. He touched her leg several times, but each time, the woman pushed his hand away, she said.
Sparks then told her he was "going to rape her" and tried to remove her shorts while pushing her across the seats, Przekota said. She scratched and wrestled with Sparks until he pushed her to the back of the train and threw her to the floor, bruising her face, she said.
At one point she grabbed a pole at the back of the train but Sparks "forcibly ripped" her away, putting his hand over her mouth as she screamed, Przekota said. Sparks straddled the woman, pinning her to the floor, as he forced her shorts down and allegedly made sexual contact with her, according to the prosecutor.
As they continued to struggle, the woman grabbed Sparks by his genitals, prompting him to stand, Przekota said.
The train then stopped at the North/Clybourn station and a passenger got on but "turned and exited the train car" as she screamed, according to Przekota. The woman left the train at the next stop and alerted the CTA worker.
The woman suffered bruises to her thighs and knees and scratches to her cheek, face and head, the prosecutor said. One of her fingers was possibly broken.
The attack was caught by CTA cameras, and surveillance photos were distributed.
The next day the security guard recognized Sparks, who was wearing the same clothes, Przekota said.
Sparks admitted to hitting the victim, fighting with her on the train and telling her he was going to rape her, according to the prosecutor.
Sparks was convicted in 2013 of indecent exposure at the Harold Washington Library and had convictions from 2000 in Iowa for felony possession of a controlled substance and misdemeanor assault on a police officer, according to prosecutors.
Sparks' attorney said he works for a moving company and lives with his mother.
Chicago Tribune's Steve Schmadeke contributed.
rsobol@tribpub.com
