Children Witnessed Man Choking Mother In Joliet: Prosecutor

JOLIET — Prosecutors at the State's Attorney's Office convinced Will County Judge Derek Ewanic to keep 54-year-old Joliet domestic violence defendant Luis Tapia in the Will County Jail under the SAFE-T-Act, following Tapia's latest arrest, earlier this week, by the Joliet police force.

Tapia was charged in Will County with aggravated battery, aggravated domestic battery, domestic battery and endangering the life or health of a child.

The prosecution's petition to deny pretrial release included several pages of Will County court records and previous orders of protection against Tapia during the past 20 years. This marks Tapia's fourth time in the Will County Jail, but his first time in the jail since 2017, jail logs show.

According to the prosecutor's petition against Tapia, Joliet police officers were sent to Tapia's house in the 500 block of Henderson Avenue on Sunday night and found a woman in distress and crying. She told them she was cooking dinner for her family and that Tapia was intoxicated, and he became aggressive. Tapia shut off the stove while she was cooking, and he told her she is not allowed to cook anymore and that "he will not be buying food for the family moving forward," prosecutors informed Judge Ewanic.

The woman was scared, so she called 911 on her phone and she tried to record Tapia as he was belligerent and telling her that he was not going to pay for medical bills for her son, court documents say.

When the woman tried to flee her house and wait for Joliet police to respond, Tapia approached her from behind and put her in a chokehold, preventing her from leaving for approximately four minutes, court documents noted.

She "felt she could not breathe and felt that she was going to lose consciousness during this time," prosecutors outlined. Both of the woman's children were in the house and saw Tapia choking their mother, the petition stated.

According to Will County's prosecutors, Tapia was convicted in 2018 of aggravated battery and domestic battery, and he was sentenced to probation. In 2014, Tapia was arrested for domestic battery, and he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of battery. In 2008 and also in 2007, Tapia was arrested and charged with domestic battery, but both of those cases were dropped because the victim refused to appear in court and cooperate for the trial, prosecutors noted.