Channahon Man, 44, Beats Up Boy, 13, After Potato Peeling Incident On Easter Sunday: Prosecutors

CHANNAHON, IL — Dusty Joe Palmer, a 44-year-old man from Louisiana who now makes Channahon his home, learned that Will County Judge Chrystel Gavlin was ordering his release from the Will County Jail after rejecting efforts by the Will County State's Attorney's Office to keep him detained under the SAFE-T-Act. The criminal complaint accuses Palmer of trying to strangle and beat up a 13-year-old boy last weekend at his house on Route 6 in Channahon.

The Channahon resident has been charged with aggravated domestic battery and two crimes of domestic battery. Palmer also has one prior domestic battery conviction in Will County from back in 2013. The victim in that particular case was a woman.

According to this week's pretrial detention petition, Will County sheriff's deputy Randich responded to Palmer's house in the 24500 block of West Eames Street/Route 6 at 5:35 p.m. on Easter Sunday for someone bleeding from his nose and mouth as well as yelling coming from the backyard.

The 13-year-old boy "was visibly shaken up and overwhelmed with the situation at hand," court documents show.

The boy told sheriff's deputies that his step-grandma was telling him to peel the potatoes for Easter dinner. The boy also stated that family was then "coming at him and yelling at him about the potatoes so he went to a bedroom."

The boy indicated that Palmer "then came into the room and told him he was going to beat him up. (The boy) began putting his phone up to record the incident and (Palmer) then started 'beating him,'" prosecutors informed Judge Gavlin.

The boy relayed that Palmer was punching him in the face. Sheriff's deputy Randich saw redness to the left side of the boy's face along with swelling. The boy had dried blood around his nose, court documents show.

As for Palmer, he gave Will County Sheriff's a statement.

"Dusty Joe stated about an hour ago (the boy) was in an argument with his stepmom. Dusty Joe then went into a bedroom ... to speak to him about the argument with his stepmom. Dusty Joe told (the boy) to come out of the bedroom and stop sulking about the argument. Dusty Joe stated (the boy) stuck his phone in his face and said, 'I'll call the cops on you,'" prosecutors said.

Dusty Joe then slapped the phone out of the boy's hand and stated he took a step towards him, according to court documents.

"I grabbed him and I slapped the shit out of him, he fell on the bed and ran out of the house," Palmer admitted, according to prosecutors.

Palmer also told sheriff's deputies he grabbed the 13-year-old boy by the collar of his shirt and slapped him across the face, court documents noted.

The boy was taken to St Joe's hospital, where his mother came to stay with him.

Sheriff's deputies spoke to the boy at the hospital to obtain a statement from him when not in such a "heightened state."

"He further explained while Dusty Joe was grabbing him by the neck, Dusty Joe hit him in the face approximately 10 times with a closed fist. Once Dusty Joe stopped hitting him, he ran out of the house and ran down the street to the neighbor's house," prosecutors outlined. The boy advised when Dusty Joe grabbed him by the throat, he did not lose consciousness, but it was hard to breathe. He still had redness and swelling on his face as well as a bruise starting to form, court files indicated.

After hearing the evidence, Judge Gavlin announced she was rejecting the prosecutor's bid to keep Palmer in the Will County Jail under the SAFE-T-Act.

The judge informed the courtroom it had been more than 10 years since Palmer's last domestic battery conviction in Will County. The judge also noted that an emergency order of protection was just taken out against Palmer to keep him away from the 13-year-old boy. The boy lives with his mother in Homer Glen, which is a good distance away from Channahon, the judge concluded.

However, Judge Gavlin did inform Palmer — much to his dismay — that she was putting him on electronic monitoring.

Palmer then spoke up and asked the judge how long he would be required to wear the ankle monitor. The judge explained that the matter could be reviewed at any of his future pretrial court hearings. Palmer's criminal case was assigned to Courtroom 405 of Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak and Palmer will need to return to the courthouse on April 29.

After spending three days in the Will County Jail, Palmer was turned loose at supper time on Tuesday.