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| Khrystoph Ford (inset) is charged with robbery and repeatedly masturbating in front of women on the Brown Line. |
A man who skipped bail while awaiting trial for robbing a CTA train passenger in the Loop was arrested for trespassing on CTA property last month but got released on a recognizance bond when the system failed to detect a bench warrant for his arrest.
Five days after he was set free, cops working at a West Loop train station recognized the man as a suspect in a series of sex offense cases aboard the CTA and took him into custody. This time the court’s bench warrant was acted on.
Last summer, Khrystoph Ford was arrested and charged with robbing a CTA passenger aboard a train at the Merchandise Mart on June 9. He was charged with robbery and resisting arrest. Judge Laura Sullivan ordered Ford to be held on a $50,000 deposit bond.
On August 10, Judge Timothy Chambers agreed to release Ford on a recognizance bond. Ford skipped his next court appearance on September 19 and was never seen again.
He re-surfaced on February 12 when CTA security had him arrested for trespassing at the Clark/Lake station. Ford gave cops a fake name—Darius Mitchell—as the CTA guard told officers that he looked like the suspect who was wanted for masturbating in front of other passengers on the Orange Line a few days earlier, according to an arrest report.
Ford was charged with trespassing on CTA property and public indecency.
The police department’s routine identity verification procedures—a mish-mash system involving court workers, county employees, city workers, and police administrative personnel—failed to detect Ford’s real name. He was released from custody on an I-Bond.
Ford walked free until February 20 when cops working at the Clinton Blue Line station recognized him as being wanted not just for one sex offense aboard the Orange Line, but for a string of cases involving female passengers on the Brown Line.
Prosecutors charged him with more three more counts of public indecency for masturbating in front of women on the Brown Line between October and December of last year. The incidents were reported at the Kimball, Damen, and Irving Park stations, according to police records.
This time, the system also detected Ford’s four-month-old bench warrant.
In court last week, Ford pleaded guilty to two counts of public indecency for the Brown Line incidents. Judge Anthony Calabrese sentenced him to 30 days in jail with credit for nine days time served.
Ford has been ordered held without bail in the Orange Line and robbery cases.
We will keep you posted as Ford’s cases wind through the court system.
