CHICAGO — Just three days after being paroled for his tenth felony last week, Anthony Richardson sexually assaulted a woman who passed out from drug use inside an elevator at the Grand Red Line station, prosecutors said during a bond hearing Monday afternoon. Judge William Fahy held Richardson without bail.
Richardson, 46, arrived at Stateville Correctional Center in Joliet last Wednesday after receiving an 18-month sentence for felony retail theft. But, after receiving various credits, he walked out of prison the same day.
On Saturday, Chicago police arrested him in River North after CTA workers allegedly found him sexually assaulting an unconscious woman inside the elevator.
CTA surveillance video showed the 55-year-old woman smoking an unspecified narcotic and then passing out in the elevator, prosecutor Anne McCord said during the bail hearing.
Richards entered the elevator and found the woman, whom he did not know, passed out on the floor, McCord alleged. She said Richardson lowered his pants, climbed onto the woman, and sexually assaulted her.
A CTA employee entered the elevator about ten minutes later and saw Richardson with his pants down, holding the woman’s head, and making “thrusting motions.” According to McCord, the employee summoned a coworker who also witnessed the assault in progress.
Upon noticing the two employees, Richardson released the woman, and her body fell limp to the floor. Chicago police officers arrested him nearby, and both CTA workers confirmed that he was the assailant, according to McCord.
In addition to the retail theft for which he was paroled last week, Richardson’s felony convictions include robbery in 2020, according to Illinois Department of Corrections records. The other nine are for narcotics and retail theft. In court on Monday, McCord said she had not heard if state officials planned on revoking Richardson’s parole status.
She told Judge Fahy that Richardson also has 39 misdemeanor convictions.
Richardson allegedly admitted to assaulting the woman, but Assistant Public Defender Malory Hudson argued that he has a learning disability and may not have understood the Miranda warning. She said he has been homeless for three years since losing a warehouse job due to COVID.
Prosecutors have charged him with criminal sexual assault and misdemeanor public indecency.