Reports: Sex For Money Turned Into Casino Rape
ELGIN, Ill. (STMW) - The reported rape of a 15-year-old girl that occurred inside a men's restroom at an Elgin casino in the middle of a Saturday afternoon began with an off-the-cuff pact to commit an act of prostitution, according to police reports and a court document that quote alleged statements from both the victim and the accused offender.
Family members told police the incident began about 2 p.m. Saturday when a mother dropped off her 15-year-old daughter and one of the teenager's friends at the Clock Tower Plaza shopping center, on National Street across the street from the northwest suburban casino. The mother said she understood that the daughter's friend was going to get a manicure at a nail-care business in the shopping center.
The police report lists an Elgin address for the mother and daughter. But the 15-year-old later told police that the family is homeless when they can't find friends to stay with. She said they need money desperately.
While the girl's friend was getting the manicure, the 15-year-old told police, she wandered around the back of the shopping center and was approached by 32-year-old Christopher A. Turner of Chicago. They talked and Turner offered her money — he told officers $20, the girl told officers $50 according to reports — if she would let him perform a sex act on her.
Needing some more private place to engage in that act, the two told police, they went across the street to the casino pavilion. Police report that a security surveillance video recorded them going into the big, often-busy main-floor men's restroom at 2:19 p.m. together.
Because it is in the casino's pavilion rather than on the riverboat itself, people entering the restroom involved do not have to prove that they are over 21, as they would if they passed casino guards on their way to gamble aboard the boat.
Once inside the restroom, the two told police, they entered a toilet stall near the far end of the restroom and proceeded to engage in an oral sex act. But, Turner allegedly told police, he became so aroused by this that he couldn't stop himself. He allegedly confessed that he pushed her to the floor of the stall and raped her while she was telling him "no" several times.
Police reports do not mention whether anyone else was in the restroom at the time.
Police said the surveillance video shows the girl leaving the men's room at about 2:30, followed quickly by Turner.
Witnesses reported that both of them returned to the Watch Tower Plaza parking lot.
By this time the girl's mother had returned to pick her up. The girl told her mother what had happened and pointed out Turner.
A man in the area who police described as "a good Samaritan" grabbed Turner and held onto him until they could get the attention of a police officer who was sitting in his patrol car in the shopping center parking lot.
That patrolman said he had to handcuff Turner and lock him into the back seat of his squad car because a crowd of angry people soon had assembled and the officer was afraid that mob would attack the suspect.
The girl was taken by ambulance to Provena Saint Joseph Hospital, where she was treated and questioned.
Turner was charged with a Class X felony count of aggravated criminal sexual assault plus felony counts of criminal sexual assault, aggravated criminal sexual abuse and unlawful restraint. On Monday a judge set his bail at $400,000. He was being held in the Kane County jail pending a July 6 court hearing.
Grand Victoria officials did not return calls Thursday asking for comment.
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