Kidnapping, Aggravated Battery Charges Filed Over Skokie Hotel Beating

SKOKIE, IL — A Lake County man is accused of strangling, beating and kidnapping a woman in a room at a Skokie hotel early Monday morning.

Footage from security cameras at the Holiday Inn, 5300 W. Touhy Ave., shows the woman repeatedly run from the hotel room down a hallway in an attempt to escape, but each time the man grabbed her and dragged her back into the room, according to prosecutors.

Julius Cha, 23, of Vernon Hills, is charged with aggravated domestic battery, kidnapping and criminal damage to property in connection with the incident.

Cha and the woman, who have been dating for four years, rented a room at the hotel on Friday to attend a family event, prosecutors said Monday afternoon at his initial court appearance.

The couple arrived around 8 p.m. and drank alcohol and smoked marijuana over the course of the next several hours, authorities said. Around midnight, the woman left to attend the family event for a few hours before heading back to the room, according to Assistant State's Attorney Nic Attia.

"The [woman's] cousin expressed concern for [her] being with [Cha]," Attia said. "[The woman] however, reassured her cousin and her cousin left the hotel."

But once the woman returned to the room, the couple began to argue. Cha choked the woman until she lost consciousness, only to wake to up Cha slapping her in the face. She lost consciousness again when he held a pillow over her face, Attia said.

When the woman tried to call her cousin to get him to call the police, Cha threw her iPhone to the ground, damaging it, and again choked and punched her after pulling her out from under the bathroom sink, according to prosecutors.

"[She] believed [Cha] would kill her," Attia said.

The woman was able to briefly escape the room after Cha threw a glass at her, cutting her leg, but Cha chased her down the hallway, picked her up and carried her back into the room, according to Attia.

Hotel guests called the front desk to report screaming coming from Cha's room, and when staff called they could hear shouting in the background, even though he insisted "everything was fine," the prosecutor said.

Officers arrived to find the woman injured and crying, with marks on her neck, cuts to her leg and a bruised nose, Attia said, while Cha had fresh scratches to his face and neck. He allegedly told officers that he was "a fighter and the scratches occurred during training."

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After getting away from Cha, the woman told officers what had happened, and Cha later admitted to breaking her phone and putting a hand over her mouth, according to Attia, although he claimed he had only hit the woman with a pillow, which led to her hitting her head on the bed.

Cha has previous arrests on charges of domestic battery and violation of an active order of protection, but he has never been convicted.

According to Assistant Public Defender Greg Kobus, Cha formerly worked at a tire shop and is currently unemployed. He is also involved in another pending court case in Skokie in which the woman's cousin in charged with battery in connection with an attack on Cha.

"Multiple defendants assaulted me, broke my back and fractured my nose." Cha said. "They tried to kill me."

Cook County Associate Judge Anthony Calabrese said he believes Cha poses a threat to the complaining witness, and the allegations of the case require a bond greater than the $500 that Cha's father said he could afford to post.

"Given the extraordinary nature of the beating and attack inflicted upon the complaining witness, that falls far short of where the bond would be appropriate here," Calabrese said.

"The nature of the allegations alleged against the defendant, the beating inflicted upon her and the circumstances under which the attack happened, it is significant," the judge said.

Calabrese ordered Cha jailed until he can come up with the $30,000 cash portion of his bond. He also ordered him to stay away from the woman he is accused of attacking should he be released ahead of trial.

Cha questioned the judge's decision, claiming that he "didn't even do nothing" as he was being led out of court.

"Thirty grand? That's crazy!" Cha said. "I never once choked her. She never lost consciousness once. If I was going to beat her, I would have beat her when I was chasing her. I never beat her once."