CHICAGO — Rene Chandler is back in custody. Chandler, who was in the Cook County jail on allegations of robbing a Chicago woman while on electronic monitoring for allegedly sexually assaulting two other women, went missing after a judge slashed his bail bond to just $500 as authorities swept thousands of detainees out of jail upon the arrival of COVID.
A U.S. Marshals Task Force apprehended Chandler in Portland, Oregon, after the Cook County Sheriff’s Fugitive Apprehension Unit developed leads that resulted in his capture, according to a sheriff’s office statement.
Chandler used a host of fake names to evade law enforcement while he was on the run and was carrying more than $19,000 cash and several driver’s licenses, credit cards, and social security cards in other people’s names, according to the sheriff’s office.
Two sexual assault cases
In August 2018, prosecutors charged Chandler with sexually assaulting and battering two different women he met on dating apps.
In one case, prosecutors said he invited a 26-year-old woman to a condo in the 800 block of North LaSalle and then tried to sleep with her. When the woman started to walk out, Chandler allegedly grabbed her from behind, threw her on the couch, and sexually assaulted her. She reported the incident a short time later.
During that investigation, police learned that Chandler was a person of interest in another sexual assault case reported in Streeterville earlier that year.
That alleged attack involved a 22-year-old woman who told police Chandler invited her to a high-rise party in the 400 block of East Ohio via social media. When Chandler tried to have sex with the woman, she began “kicking and screaming and managed to knee [him] in the face,” prosecutors said in a court filing.
Chandler “became very angry and slapped [her face]” after she kicked him, according to allegations. When she tried to leave, he grabbed her by her wig, threw her to the ground, kicked and punched her, and sexually assaulted her, prosecutors said.
Afterward, according to prosecutors, he followed the woman onto the elevator and continued to batter her as they rode down to the lobby level. The woman flagged down police outside, but Chandler was no longer at the scene. Cops later arrested him.
A judge set Chandler’s bail on the attacks at $100,000 each, and he posted $20,000 to get out of jail on electronic monitoring.
Robbery while on bail
A few months after Chandler went home to await trial, another woman accused him of battering and robbing her as they rode in an Uber near Hyde Park.
The woman, 26, met Chandler through social media and had been dating him briefly when they argued in the Uber. When the driver pulled over because the argument was escalating, Chandler struck the woman in the face and took her new phone along with $640 cash from her purse, prosecutors said. According to the state’s allegations, he ran from the car and fled in a taxi cab.
A judge ordered him held without bail for violating the terms of bail in the sexual assault cases and set bail in the robbery matter at $80,000, court records show.
Chandler remained in jail until COVID arrived.
‘Absolutely not a flight risk’
On April 9, 2020, Chandler’s attorney filed a motion to get him out of jail due to concerns about COVID. The lawyer told Judge Thomas Hennelly that the sexual assault cases were “he-said-she-said” and claimed Chandler bought the phone for the alleged robbery victim.
Hennelly, who had not been overseeing the case previously, repeatedly questioned why the judge assigned to the matters didn’t take action for over a year if the lawyer’s arguments had been presented. In court transcripts, Hennelly seemed reluctant to take a significant step when the trial judge had not done so.
Nonetheless, court records show that Hennelly struck Chandler’s no-bail status and allowed him to get out of jail by posting a $500 deposit bond. Prosecutors, who presented minimal counterarguments during the bond review hearing, filed an emergency motion to reinstate Chandler’s no-bail status.
Among other things, the state’s attorney’s office admitted in filings that its lawyers did not tell Hennelly the facts of the sexual assault cases. And, prosecutors said, Chandler’s alleged victims weren’t even notified of the bond reduction hearing.
The state also revealed that Chandler was accused in 2013 of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman he met online. But a judge later dismissed the case, finding no probable cause.
Prosecutors further accused Chandler of talking about paying off one of his alleged victims during a jailhouse phone call just nine days before his bail was reduced. During the call, Chandler “details one of his cases and also discusses a previous attempt to tamper with a victim and pay her a sum of money to alter her story,” attorneys for the state said.
After hearing the prosecution’s objection and Chandler’s defense, Judge Michael McHale ordered Chandler to return to jail and to be held without bail. But the hearing was conducted via Zoom due to the COVID pandemic, and Chandler could not be taken into custody immediately.
Instead, a warrant was issued for Chandler’s arrest two days later.
Chandler remains in custody in Oregon as federal and local authorities consider filing additional charges against him.
Original reporting you’ll see nowhere else, paid for by our readers. Click here to support our work.
