A man on parole, house arrest, and electronic monitoring for raping a woman in a Boystown alley 19 years ago sexually abused a 6-year-old girl at a South Side bus stop last weekend, prosecutors say. But the girl’s mother managed to take a picture of the man before he got away, and an anonymous tipster recognized him when Chicago police released the image to the public earlier this week.
That tip led police to James Spencer, 41, a registered sex offender who is now back in the Cook County jail after Judge John Hock ordered him detained Thursday on a charge of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a child younger than 13. The state is now reviewing Spencer’s parole status.
According to a detention petition, the girl was waiting with her mother and 8-month-old brother at a bus stop on the corner of State and 87th around 7:40 p.m. Saturday when Spencer parked at a nearby store and walked directly toward the family, bending down several times to get close to the girl. Prosecutors said the girl’s mother noticed Spencer walking up behind the child, so she pulled the girl away and told Spencer not to touch her.
The bus arrived moments later, and Spencer boarded behind the family. Prosecutors said he then pretended to fall, began yelling, abruptly got off the bus, and walked away. The girl, who was visibly shaken, told her mother Spencer had grabbed her “part” and demonstrated the squeezing motion with her hands, according to prosecutors.
Infuriated, the mother got off the bus with her children and searched for Spencer. She found him at a nearby grocery store, where she snapped a photo of his face, which she later turned over to Chicago police. Chicago police issued a community alert Sunday using the photograph taken by the girl’s mother. On Monday, an anonymous caller identified the man as Spencer, prosecutors said.
When detectives questioned Spencer, he allegedly admitted he was the man seen in surveillance video of the incident and in the mother’s photograph. Prosecutors said he also acknowledged being at the bus stop, but claimed any contact with the girl was unintentional and caused by “stumbling.”
During his detention hearing on Thursday, prosecutors detailed two violent crimes against women that Spencer committed in Boystown early on September 14, 2007. Shortly after 4 a.m., Spencer approached a woman from behind in the 800 block of West Cornelia Avenue, grabbed her by the neck, slammed her to the ground, stole her phone, and fled down the 3400 block of North Elaine Place.
There, he encountered a 40-year-old woman walking home with snacks she had just purchased at the 7-Eleven at Halsted and Roscoe Streets. Spencer attacked her from behind, threw her to the ground, grabbed her by the neck, and threatened to kill her, officials said. He dragged the woman into a nearby alley, removed her clothing, and sexually assaulted her. Neighbors heard the woman’s screams and called 911. Officers arrived in time to see Spencer still on top of the woman with his pants down. As he tried to escape, he threw the phone he had just taken from the robbery victim.
Spencer was sentenced to 15 years in prison for criminal sexual assault with a concurrent seven years for the robbery. He later received a concurrent five-year term for a burglary case that was solved in 2009 after DNA testing of blood at the crime scene came back to him.
His criminal history also includes a 2006 arrest in Missouri for forcible rape, although prosecutors on Thursday said the disposition of that case was unknown. Before going to prison, Spencer had accumulated multiple retail theft and misdemeanor arrests. As a juvenile, he was detained four times, including for robbery and theft, according to court records.
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