CHICAGO — An 18-year-old Chicago man who joined two accomplices to beat a 59-year-old woman in the face and take her fanny pack at a CTA bus stop will be released on an ankle monitor after a Cook County judge rejected a prosecution request to have him detained as a safety threat.
Prosecutors called the 3-on-1 attack “brutal” in their detention petition, saying the assault was caught on camera and was witnessed by a motorist who followed Terell Creighton until Chicago police took him into custody.
The victim was waiting for her bus at Pulaski and Division when Creighton and two men who remain at large walked up to her shortly before noon Wednesday, officials said. Creighton demanded the woman’s fanny pack, which contained about $30, but she refused to cooperate, according to prosecutors.
At that point, the three men pulled the woman’s winter cap over her head and punched her in the face with their fists “multiple times,” according to the allegations. Creighton ripped the woman’s fanny pack away and fled the scene.
A driver witnessed the attack and called 911 while following Creighton in their car until cops took him into custody in the 1300 block of North Kostner, prosecutors said. Investigators also determined that a Chicago police surveillance camera recorded the robbery.
Creighton, who turned 18 on October 15, was charged as a juvenile last summer with criminal trespass to a vehicle and resisting or obstructing police, the state’s detention petition said.
After hearing the state’s allegations, Judge Ortiz rejected the detention petition, saying that the state failed to meet its burden, according to court records. Instead, she determined that public safety could be assured by putting Creighton on house arrest while he awaits trial on one count of robbery.
He is due in court again on Wednesday.
