Court records expose names, addresses of women who accused serial groper, despite privacy laws

CHICAGO (CBS) -- It's information the public isn't supposed to see. CBS 2 fought for months to keep such information sealed. Laws were passed to protect that information, but we found it anyway. Full names and addresses of alleged sexual assault victims in a high-profile case; accusers of a serial scooter groper.

More than two weeks ago, we told you about a man accused of riding around the South Loop and West Loop on a scooter, groping women.

The suspect was arrested, and is now out on bond. We wanted to find out more about his background, but uncovered another issue that made his accusers angry and cringe.

The accusers in this case were reluctant to come forward even to police, for fear of retaliation and public scrutiny; but when we went digging into this case, we found their identities and most sensitive information was available with the stroke of a keyboard.

"I was walking down the street, this was the middle of the day. Someone came up behind me and groped me," said one woman who was sexually assaulted by the suspected serial groper.

"I was, at first, really shocked and confused," she said.

The victim doesn't want her name or face revealed to protect her identity, right she has under the law.

For months, 36-year-old Victor Manuel-Reyes was on the loose, and on the public's radar, after multiple women came forward with the same story: a man on a motorized skateboard groping them.

"I was groped behind from this man under my shorts," Paige Ruhnke.

Manuel-Reyes was charged earlier this week with one felony count of criminal sexual assault, one felony count of aggravated battery in a public place, and one felony count of aggravated criminal sexual assault with bodily harm.

Police say he was identified as the man who was groping women while riding a motorized one-wheeled skateboard in at least two separate incidents.

The CBS 2 Investigators checked Manuel-Reyes' court records, and found something we weren't supposed to see: the names and addresses of all the women accusing him of assault.

The CBS 2 investigators have long exposed the dangerous flaw that failed to conceal the identities of child sex assault victims.

In 2021, we sat down with Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Iris Martinez, who promised action.

"These victims have been victims, they've been traumatized by this, and it's important that we protect that identity," she said.

Because of our investigation, state lawmakers in 2021 passed a pair of new laws to strengthen privacy protections for sex crime survivors. Those laws went into effect this year.

So, imagine the surprise when, just this week, we pulled up the personal information of alleged victims in Manuel-Reyes' case. A trip to the Cook County courthouse, a quick search of Manuel-Reyes' name at the public kiosk, and we got the entire unredacted court report.

Out of respect, we let Manuel-Reyes' accusers know what we found.   

"It's really scary to know," one of those victims told us. 

"I don't know who this person is. I don't know how angry there going to be with me or us after this, what they're going to do. And so having my name concealed was really important," another said.

It's especially problematic since Manuel-Reyes is out on bond, according to advocates for sex assault victims.

"To have them be in the public eye unnecessarily is another violation," said Jason Wynkoop, chief program officer at Chicago Children's Advocacy Center, when we brought him our findings.

We also took our concerns once again to Clerk Martinez, to ask her how it happened.

"Probably a combination of many things that are going on," she said.

Martinez blamed human error, new hires, and hiccups in training.

"It was something that we have to continue to educate and work with our technology, making sure our technology is doing what's it's supposed to be doing, and making sure our clerks are also checking the information and double-checking to make sure this doesn't happen again," she said.

Her office sealed the Manuel-Reyes court documents as soon as we brought it to their attention, promising new safeguards.

"We are running, thanks to you, daily reports to make sure that if anything needs to be, it's addressed in that report," she said.

Martinez said, since January, her office has sealed more than 2,500 other cases like this one, with thousands left to go. She hopes this added layer of security will help screen old and new cases that still need to be redacted.