Pregnant Woman Beaten, Stomped Upon By Repeat Offender In Evanston, Authorities Say

EVANSTON, IL — A Cook County judge last week ordered a man to remain jailed while awaiting trial on charges he beat a pregnant woman earlier this month in Evanston.

Johnel Washington, 33, of Evanston, faces one count of aggravated battery to a pregnant or disabled person, a class 3 felony, and one count of misdemeanor domestic battery in connection with an incident that took place on the morning of Dec. 10, authorities said.

Hours earlier, the woman he is accused of beating, six months pregnant at the time, had asked him to bring home some food that she had been craving, according to police and prosecutors. But he ignored her calls did not bring home any food.

The two argued upon his return, and after Washington went to sleep, the woman rifled through his coat looking for his phone, according to Assistant State's Attorney Joe DiBella.

"Instead, [she] found condoms and cash," DiBella told the judge Dec. 20 at Washington's detention hearing in Skokie.

The woman woke him up and told Washington he had to leave, warning him that she would call the cops, DiBella said.

As Washington became more upset, he began ripping a television off the wall, dragged the woman to the floor by her hair and covered her mouth with his hand, she told police.

Washington kicked and punched the woman in the head as she tried to shield her belly under the coach, according to the prosecutor, who alleged Washington threatened to smash a bottle of tequila on her skull and said he did not care if the unborn child lived or died.

Police reported Washington then grabbed the woman's phone and car keys and left in her car. She later went to the hospital, where she was treated for blunt head trauma, cuts, swelling and bruising. Hospital staff then contacted police, DiBella said.

On Dec. 18, Evanston police pulled over Washington for having expired plates while driving the woman's car. When officers ran his information, they learned there was a wanted bulletin for his arrest and took him into custody.

Washington has five arrests in the last nine months stemming from accusations of battery to the same woman, prosecutors said, but in each case, she declined to press charges.

This time, prosecutors plan to pursue a conviction based on the evidence against him even if the woman would prefer they did not, Assistant State's Attorney Colin DeBrabander told Cook County Associate Judge Sharon Kanter.

Assistant Public Defender David Eingorn, who represented Washington at his detention hearing, said the woman told him that she does not want to press charges or pursue an order of protection against him. Her testimony would be the primary evidence against him, he said.

Eingorn said Washington got as far as the 10th grade, held down a job at a gelato shop, and was permitted by the woman to continue living in the South Evanston apartment they shared after the Dec. 10 incident.

"How can we say there's a clear and present danger to her if she's willingly living there with him?" Eingorn asked.

In addition to the domestic violence arrests that did not lead to convictions, Washington has been convicted of about a half-dozen felonies related to battering police and illegally possessing guns and drugs, the judge was told.

Most recently, he was convicted last year of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and aggravated battery to police and sentenced to six years in state prison, DiBella said, telling Kanter that Washington nonetheless did not appear to have been on parole at the time of his latest arrest.

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Kanter determined that Washington posed a real threat to the woman, regardless of whether she wanted to pursue charges against him and there was no way to mitigate that threat short of locking him up to await trial.

The judge found that he "struck [her] with his feet on the side of her body, as well as the stomach, that he stomped on her stomach and face, that [he] made statements that [he] did not care about whether or not the [woman] or the unborn child lived or died, that [she] attempted to shield her abdomen, at which point she was kicked and punched in the head."

Kanter said she took into account the woman's stated desires not to testify against him but pointed out that Washington allegedly took her phone in order to prevent her from calling authorities and noted his history of disregarding court ho

"I don't believe there is anything I could tell this defendant to stay away from this victim that would be followed," she said.

Washington is due back in court Jan. 4 for a hearing on the status of a grand jury indictment against him.