Feb. 19--A Lake County Jail inmate awaiting trial in connection with the death of a Highland Park man has been charged with attacking a jail guard.
Authorities said Benjamin Schenk, who has been in jail since 2013 on a first-degree murder charge in connection with the slaying of Colin Nutter, punched and threw a chair at a corrections officer, who suffered a minor injury.
Schenk has been charged with aggravated assault and aggravated battery of a police officer in the alleged attack.
Schenk, Philip Vatamaniuc and Michael Coffee were arrested in June 2013 and charged in the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Nutter, whose body was found near an Edens Expressway ramp in Wilmette. Authorities allege the three suspects had arranged to buy marijuana from Nutter but instead one of them shot him in the back of the head while they were sitting in Nutter's car.
Schenk, of Highwood, was 20 at the time of Nutter's death; Vatamaniuc and Coffee, both of Highland Park, were 17.
The new charges against Schenk were lodged Tuesday after an incident Friday evening, when authorities said Schenk disobeyed a corrections officer's instruction and approached the officer with a clenched fist. The officer pepper-sprayed Schenk, who then threw a chair and two other objects at the officer and punched him, officials said. The officer was treated at a hospital and released.
Schenk was initially held on a $5 million bond but, because of the new charges, another $250,000 was added to his bond, jail records show.
Susan Berger is a freelance reporter.
