A Brookfield man who pleaded guilty to domestic battery for the 2014 beating of his pregnant fiancée, who ultimately miscarried, has been charged with felony stalking of that same woman after she called police during the early morning hours of Oct. 8 to report that he might be trying to get into her house.
Riverside, Lyons and Brookfield police descended on the area of the village west of First Avenue about 5:30 a.m., set up a perimeter and searched the wooded area near the BNSF Railroad tracks.
An officer spotted a man who was walking in the 3300 block of First Avenue near the train overpass. The man claimed to have been walking in the woods for “ninja training” and to relax. He denied being on his ex-girlfriend’s property. The victim identified the man as her ex-boyfriend and said it was the same person she had seen outside her home.
The 38-year-old victim told police that just minutes before calling police she noticed an exterior security light go on above her back door. Moments later, however, the light was out, and the victim stated she could hear someone outside the back door, apparently trying to get in.
She then reported seeing a man wearing striped pants and carrying a flashlight run to the tree line near the railroad tracks. When police detained the alleged offender, he was wearing striped pants.
Police reported that when they checked the exterior lights at the residence, the light bulbs had been removed. In some cases, they said, the whole security unit had been removed.
“There is no doubt in my mind that [he] was waiting in the woods until he could approach his ex-girlfriend’s home and do harm to her,” said Riverside Police Chief Thomas Weitzel. “All the outside lighting on the home was disabled prior to Riverside police apprehending him and he did admit to being in the woods. I believe that if the victim had not spotted him just prior to him walking on her property and called police immediately, we may have been investigating a more serious incident.”
In 2014, the man was charged with aggravated domestic battery and aggravated battery to an unborn child after he beat his then-girlfriend so badly that she had to be hospitalized. The victim, who was pregnant at the time of the beating, miscarried a month later.
However, the man pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of domestic battery, a misdemeanor, and was sentenced to 18 months’ conditional discharge. At a bond hearing on Oct. 8, a Cook County Circuit Court judge set the man’s bond at $200,000. He posted bond and is free while awaiting trial.
The stalking charge against the name was later dropped, according to court records.
