COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — A Far South Side man who was out on bond for a pending CTA "upskirt" case followed a Columbia College student from A South Loop CTA station, groped her and asked her to hop up and down, prosecutors alleged Friday.
After the attack, which happened inside a school building at 72 E. 11th St., Steven Carmona, 41, apologized and asked the 20-year-old victim for her phone number, prosecutors said.
"Your client to me is a predator," Cook County Judge Adam Bourgeois Jr. told Carmona's defense attorney during a bond hearing Friday.
"So that my colleagues don't misunderstand," Judge Bourgeois continued, "his bail is set at $5 million."
Carmona was charged in May of this year with following a 16-year-old girl off a CTA train and filming up her skirt as she walked up stairs, according to Assistant State's Attorney Todd Kleist, who spoke in court Friday.
Bail was initially set at $150,000 with electronic monitoring. But after Carmona posted bond, he violated curfew restrictions, and had his bond revoked in June. It was reinstated in July at $200,000, which he was able to post.
Prosecutors said Carmona, who is married and has a 16-year-old daughter, followed the Columbia College student into a school building two months later, on Sept. 9.
He had spotted her as she left the Orange Line Roosevelt station, Kleist said.
According to an arrest report, the woman noticed Carmona following her, and had never seen him before that day. When she ducked into a campus theater building at 72 E. 11th St. and used a vending machine, she noticed Carmona was still there, the report said.
Carmona followed the woman into an elevator, where he groped and grabbed her, prosecutors said. Court records show Carmona told the woman his name was "Michael" and asked for her name and age.
When the woman got off the elevator and tried to enter a restroom, Carmona held open the door and again grabbed and groped her several times, Kleist said.
The victim tried to pull away and Carmona apologized, according to court testimony. He then asked the woman for her phone number and told her to jump up and down, Kleist said. She refused both requests.
After the attack, the woman hid in the bathroom "because she was afraid," Kleist added. Once Carmona left, she called campus security, the arrest report said. According to prosecutors, the woman was not injured.
Police arrested Carmona, who'd been identified in a photo array, outside a county courthouse at Belmont and Western on Thursday, prosecutors said. Carmona was there for a second pending "upskirt" case, which was dropped. In that case, he had been accused of filming a 38-year-old woman from behind. It's not clear why the case was dismissed.
Carmona was previously convicted in 2008 of groping someone on the street. He was sentenced to 18 months of court supervision. He was also arrested in 1998 for window peeping, prosecutors said, but that case was dismissed.
Carmona, of East Side, was charged with criminal sexual abuse for the Columbia College incident.
Judge Bourgeois on Friday set bail at $5 million. If Carmona should post bond, the judge said, Carmona is not allowed to go near the victim, Columbia College students, Columbia College property, CTA trains or CTA property.
Carmona's attorney said his client owns a small business, but provided no further details.
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