Man Pleads Not Guilty In Grant Park Tree Branch Assault
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A 45-year-old homeless ex-convict pleaded not guilty Tuesday to beating a northwest suburban man, and anally assaulting him with a tree branch, in Grant Park.
Cortez Foster, 45, a resident of the Pacific Garden Mission shelter on South Canal Street, was charged March 28 with aggravated criminal sexual assault, armed robbery and aggravated battery.
On Tuesday, Foster pleaded not guilty and a status hearing was set for June 9, Cook County State's Attorney's office spokeswoman Simonton said.
When the victim was found, he was not wearing shoes or pants, and had only one sock on.
The attack had happened a short time earlier near the Gen. John Logan monument in Grant Park.
At 11:58 p.m. March 25, Foster and the man were "interacting," when Foster became angry about something and began punching the man, Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Morgan Creppel said in court on Tuesday.
Foster knocked the man to the ground and kicked him in the head and body after he was down, Creppel alleged. Then Foster shoved a tree branch into the man's anus, Creppel alleged.
Foster then took the victim's cell phone and fled the scene, Creppel alleged.
The man was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where doctors had to remove part of the tree branch that was lodged in his rectum.
The victim suffered severe head trauma, including fractures at his eyes and nose, and he had to be put in a drug-induced coma to reduce the swelling on his brain, Creppel said. He also had to be intubated.
Meanwhile, the man's family told police the assailant had taken his cell phone, and police went through the cell phone's records. They found out that Foster had sold the cell phone to a friend, and the friend's mother told police she knew Foster and helped track him to the Pacific Garden Mission, Creppel said.
When police apprehended Foster, they found bloody clothing. He also confessed to police that he'd had a disagreement with the man and admitted that, in his words, he had "used" the tree branch on the victim, Creppel alleged.
The tree branch was 7 inches long and half an inch in diameter, Creppel said.
Foster was serving a 20-year sentence at the Centralia Correctional Center for a 2000 armed robbery conviction before being paroled last May.
The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.
