COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — A quick-thinking CTA bus driver slammed on her brakes, locked her doors and called police Wednesday after spotting a 79-year-old passenger molesting a 14-year-old girl, prosecutors said.
Suspect Carlos De La Torre, 79, was still able to escape after a fellow passenger told him how to use an emergency lever, Assistant State's Attorney Joseph Carlson said Thursday.
Police quickly recognized De La Torre on CTA surveillance footage and arrested the man at his Logan Square home roughly 10 hours later, court records show.
De La Torre, of the 2700 block of North Sawyer Avenue, confessed to groping the girl, police said, and is now charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse. Bail was set Thursday at $500,000.
According to prosecutors, De La Torre first spotted the 14-year-old girl at a bus stop near Chicago and Milwaukee avenues about 9:20 a.m. Wednesday.
He approached the girl, asked her where she went to school and how old she was, and tried to engage her in conversation, Carlson said. The girl told De La Torre her age, but tried to ignore the man.
Upon entering the bus, the girl sat in the back, while De La Torre took a seat in the front, prosecutors said. The man soon moved to a seat across from the girl before moving once more to sit immediately next to her, authorities said.
It was then that De La Torre began groping the girl and saying sexually explicit things, according to Carlson.
The girl tried to pull away and said, "no," as De La Torre continued to kiss and grope her while asking her to come home with him, prosecutors said. De La Torre then forced the girl to touch his penis by threatening to find her school and kidnap her, according to Carlson.
About 9:40 a.m. in the 2400 block of North Milwaukee Avenue, the bus driver spotted De La Torre and the girl in her mirror, police and prosecutors said.
The driver immediately stopped her bus, locked the doors and called police, Carlson said. The woman confronted De La Torre, who apologized several times before trying to break down the bus's rear door. That's when a passenger told De La Torre how to use the door's emergency lever, prosecutors said.
No additional information about the passenger was immediately available Thursday.
Assistant Public Defender Marc Davidson said De La Torre is a retired widower who raised four children and previously worked as a carpenter.
Cook County Judge James Brown on Thursday set bail at $500,000.
This is the second incident of its kind in Logan Square in two weeks.
A man sexually abused a 6-year-old girl at a grocery store in the 3900 block of West Diversey Avenue on April 15. Using surveillance footage, police arrested a 43-year-old man a few days later.
Noe Moreno, of the 2200 block of N. Narragansett Ave., was charged with one felony count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a victim under 9.
