Rosha Banks was arrested Wednesday at the Center on Halsted. | CPD; Google |
UPDATE July 23: Court records indicate that the alleged sexual assault actually took place in a gangway in the 900 block of West Newport, not the 3600 block of North Halsted as stated in court. Our original report follows.
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A transgender woman was sexually assaulted and choked in a Boystown gangway this week by a convicted robber who was released from prison earlier this month, according to police and state records.
Officers were called to the Center on Halsted, 3656 North Halsted, at 2:10 p.m. Wednesday after an employee reported that a man with a knife was hiding in a bathroom stall on the ground floor, according to dispatch records.
Cops detained the man, identified as 24-year-old Rosha Banks, and secured a knife. The woman, also 24, approached officers at the scene and said Banks had sexually assaulted her near the LGBTQ service center on Monday, July 15th.
An investigation was launched and prosecutors have now charged Banks with aggravated criminal sexual assault causing bodily harm, criminal sexual assault by force, criminal sexual assault-consent, kidnapping by force, aggravated battery-strangulation, and possession of a deadly weapon.
Prosecutors on Friday said Banks forced the victim to perform sex acts in a passageway on the 3600 block of North Halsted and later threatened to kill her if she left him.
Judge Mary Marubio ordered Banks held without bail.
Banks was sentenced to three years in prison for a 2017 robbery. He was released on July 3rd after serving half of his sentence.