Laundry Attack At Senior Suites Joliet On 4th Floor: JPD

JOLIET — The Will County State's Attorney's Office of Jim Glasgow tried to convince Will County Judge Donald DeWilkins to keep 66-year-old downtown Joliet criminal defendant Earl Payne in the Will County Jail following Sunday's violent encounter on the fourth floor of the Senior Suites Joliet, but the judge chose to let Payne out of jail.

Payne has been charged with domestic battery following his arrest by Joliet police at 215 N. Ottawa St., the multi-story brick building.

Joliet police were sent to the Senior Suites at 9:05 a.m. on Sunday for a domestic dispute in the fourth floor hallway. According to court records, Payne told Joliet police the 71-year-old woman hit him with an item she had in her walker, and then he pushed her into the hallway in her walker.

The two had argued about laundry and about going outside, according to court documents.

Payne also told Joliet police they had been living in Joliet for about one year but that the woman had stabbed him in Las Vegas, and she may be violating her probation by being around him, according to the prosecutor's petition.

As for the victim, she told Joliet police that Payne hit her with his walker or her walker. She told officers Payne had physically abused her "an unknown amount of times out of state," court files reflect.

Officers interviewed another person who lived on the fourth floor. She had called the police about the dispute. According to her statement, Payne was kicking the 71-year-old victim as she was lying on the floor in the hallway "and that she would not treat an animal as bad as defendant was kicking."

However, Joliet police found no visible injuries on the victim, and she was upset that Payne was being arrested, according to prosecutors.

As for Payne, his criminal history includes a 2011 sentencing in Cook County for possession of controlled substances; a 1997 sentencing in Will County for criminal trespass; a 1975 conviction in Cook County for unlawful use of a weapon; a 2019 conviction in North Las Vegas Municipal Court for disturbing the peace. He also had two prior arrests for domestic battery, in 2012 and in 2000, both in Cook County, but both arrests did not result in convictions.

In the end, Judge DeWilkins ruled that although Payne is charged with a detention-eligible crime, the prosecution's request to keep him incarcerated was denied.

Payne was let out of the Will County Jail on Tuesday afternoon after three days in custody. His next pretrial hearing at the Will County Courthouse is set for April 23 in Courtroom 405.

As part of his pretrial release, Judge DeWilkins notified Payne he must have no contact with the 71-year-old woman he is accused of attacking, and he must stay out of one of the apartments at the Joliet Senior Suites on North Ottawa Street until further notice from the judge.