COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — Nearly four years after a woman was violently raped in a Logan Square parking lot, prosecutors have filed charges in the attack.
The 32-year-old victim was heading home on June 16, 2012, when she was beaten, raped and forced to perform oral sex in a gravel parking lot, according to prosecutors. A good Samaritan eventually heard the woman's cries and chased off her attacker.
Authorities collected a rape kit that evening, prosecutors said, and DNA samples were sent to state laboratories.
Nearly three years later, in April 2015, Illinois State Police were able to positively match DNA from the rape kit to that of Oscar Aguilar, an Irving Park laborer, according to court testimony.
Aguilar was arrested in May 2015, and both the victim and the good Samaritan witness were able to identify Aguilar as the 2012 attacker, Assistant State's Attorney Matthew Howroyd said during a bond hearing Tuesday.
Then Aguilar was released.
According to Howroyd, prosecutors decided not to pursue criminal charges at the time because they felt the case needed further investigation. The Chicago Police Department didn't finish its investigation until March of this year, he added.
"You let [Aguilar] go, even though there was a positive DNA swab, and a victim and a witness identifying him?" Cook County Judge Peggy Chiampas asked Howroyd in court Tuesday.
"Yes," Howroyd said.
Police arrested Aguilar on Monday — a year and two days after his initial arrest in this case. Aguilar, 36, of the 4700 block of West Warwick Avenue, now faces felony charges of aggravated criminal sexual assault causing bodily harm.
The Cook County State's Attorney's Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
According to prosecutors, the attack happened June 16, 2012, in the 1700 block of North Lawndale Avenue.
The victim was walking home alone from a bar when Aguilar pulled up in his car and offered her a ride home, Howroyd said. Though the victim had never met Aguilar, she accepted the ride.
The woman soon felt uncomfortable, Howroyd said, and jumped out of Aguilar's car at a red light.
As the woman started to walk home, she noticed Aguilar circling the block, prosecutors said. The woman hid under a parked truck and soon spotted Aguilar getting out of his car to look for her, Howroyd added.
At that point, the victim took off running. Aguilar caught up to her in a gravel parking lot on Lawndale, where he pushed the victim to the ground and smashed her head into the ground, Howroyd said.
That's when Aguilar allegedly raped and anally raped the woman, and forced her to perform oral sex. A good Samaritan eventually heard the woman screaming, prosecutors said, and ran toward the attack.
He scared off Aguilar and covered the victim, who was laying half-naked on the ground, with his shirt until police arrived, according to Howroyd.
The victim was treated at a nearby hospital for a large bump to her head, as well as scratching and bruising on several areas of her body, prosecutors said. A rape kit was also collected.
In 2015, the Illinois State Police concluded that Aguilar "cannot be excluded as a donor" of the DNA in the rape kit, Howroyd said.
Judge Chiampas on Tuesday ordered Aguilar held in lieu of $750,000 bail.
According to his defense attorney, Aguilar works as a laborer for a landscaping company. He is engaged and has three children, ages 2, 7 and 13, the attorney said.
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