Third Teen Charged In Rape Of Woman Outside Congress Theater
UPDATED 03/22/12 5:22 a.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A third teenager has been charged in the brutal sexual assault of a woman down the street from the Congress Theater in the Logan Square neighborhood on New Year's Eve.
Charles Chuning, 16, didn't fondle, sexually assault or rob the victim like his co-defendants Terrance Ford, 15, and Aanwar Barbour, 16, did, Cook County prosecutors said Wednesday.
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But Chuning helped carry the victim to another location where Ford raped the woman while Chuning and several others watched in a semicircle, at 2158 N. Rockwell St., Assistant State's Attorney Sean O'Callaghan said.
Police said the girl, a senior at Highland Park High School, came to the Congress Theater on New Year's Eve for a show by English DJ and electronic dance music producer Rusko. But she was not allowed in because she didn't have an ID.
She then went into a restaurant on Milwaukee Avenue across from the theater when she couldn't get in. She was separated from her friends, who were inside the concert venue, O'Callaghan said in court earlier this month, reading from proffered allegations.
Chuning and five others had joined Ford and Barbour at the restaurant, where they met the woman, O'Callaghan added Wednesday.
The victim was eventually helped outside and when a witness saw Ford and Barbour fondling her against a chain-link fence at Rockwell and Milwaukee, Chuning suggested they move her "down the street," O'Callaghan said
Ford, Barbour and Chuning took turns carrying the teenager and when Chuning noticed she was bleeding from a fall during her encounter with the male teens, he dropped her in a bush, O'Callaghan said.
In a front yard on the street, the group lay the victim on the ground, and pulled her pants down and her shirt up, O'Callaghan said. Ford then began to sexually assault her, the prosecutor alleged.
Someone on the street saw the group standing in a semicircle in the front yard, and approached to find the rape in progress while the others stood there watching, O'Callaghan said. When the witness came up, everyone in the group scattered, he said.
But someone who was at the scene went back to the Congress Theater and told security what happened. Theater security apprehended some of the alleged assailants, who were identified by others in their own group and by video surveillance from an unspecified source, O'Callaghan said.
Meanwhile, neighbors found the girl found lying unconscious and partially naked on a lawn. She had been beaten severely and was covered in blood, police said at the time.
A $500,000 arrest warrant had been issued for Chuning, who was originally just charged with kidnapping. The former De LaSalle High School student was in North Carolina attending a boarding school, his attorney said, adding that the teenager swiftly returned to the area when he learned he was wanted.
Since then, Chuning has also been charged with aggravated sexual assault and robbery based on accountability statutes.
Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil ordered Chuning held on $750,000 bail Wednesday.
Because Chuning was previously enrolled at a school in Spain, Kuriakos Ciesil also asked him to surrender his passport.
Chuning's relatives refused comment following Wednesday's hearing.
The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2012. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
