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Tanning Salon Owner Raped Client in West Loop, Prosecutors Say

By Erica Demarest | October 3, 2015 8:35am | Updated on October 5, 2015 8:54am
 Marc Winner, 44, is charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault.
Marc Winner, 44, is charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault.
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DNAinfo; Chicago Police Department

COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — The owner of a West Loop tanning salon has been charged with raping a customer.

According to prosecutors, the 26-year-old victim stopped by Soleil Tanning Salon, 1018 W. Madison St., sometime around midnight on Aug. 21. The salon is open until midnight seven days a week, its website says.

When the woman was done tanning, owner Marc Winner, 44, asked her personal questions and followed her outside as she walked to her car, Assistant State's Attorney Molly Donnelly said during a bond hearing Friday.

Winner asked the woman to get a drink with him, and she initially refused but later agreed because Winner "was persistent," Donnelly said.

At a nearby bar, Winner and the woman each had one shot and one drink before the woman stepped away to make a phone call, prosecutors said. When she returned, Winner allegedly gave the woman another shot and drink, which she drank.

The woman dropped off Winner across the street from the tanning salon and began to head home, prosecutors said. But as she pulled away, the woman crashed into a parked car.

Police arrived, and Winner "intervened and brought the victim back to his apartment" in the West Loop, Donnelly said.

After the woman called a friend to pick her up, prosecutors alleged, Winner climbed on top of the woman and began kissing her. The woman tried to push him away and told him to stop, but Winner overpowered her and carried her to his bedroom, prosecutors said.

There, Winner raped the victim while holding her down by the throat and squeezing "to the point where the victim could not breathe," Donnelly said.

The woman told Winner to stop, and that he was hurting her, and Winner laughed, according to prosecutors.

When the attack was over, the victim tried to find her phone, but Winner grabbed her before she could reach it and raped her again — this time biting and choking her, prosecutors alleged.

The woman eventually got her phone and had a friend pick her up, Donnelly said. The woman went to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where a rape kit was collected. Doctors found a tear in her vaginal canal, as well as bruising on her arms and legs, prosecutors said.

Winner was arrested Wednesday and charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault.

In 2013, prosecutors filed the same exact charge against Winner in a very similar rape case — but that charge was later dismissed. In that case, a Soleil Tanning Salon employee claimed Winner brought her to his apartment, took away her cell phone, pushed her into his bedroom and raped her. During a preliminary hearing, a Cook County judge ruled there was no probable cause to pursue criminal charges.

Winner was previously convicted of driving on a revoked license, battery, theft and possession of cocaine.

Winner's defense attorney said Winner has lived in the Chicagoland area his entire life and also owns a pizzeria.

Cook County Judge Donald Panarese Jr. on Friday ordered Winner held in lieu of $500,000 bail.

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