Police 'Unable To Find' Accused Haven Custodian, Parents Say

EVANSTON, IL — More than five weeks after a 12-year-old girl reported a custodian working in an Evanston/Skokie School District 65 middle school sexually assaulted her in a bathroom, her parents publicly questioned the Evanston Police Department's response.

The mother and father of the Haven Middle School seventh grader said they "don't understand why it has taken so long for the Evanston Police to take action against the sexual predator who assaulted our daughter," according to a letter they sent Tuesday to Chief Demitrous Cook.

According to the letter, the girl identified the custodian as her attacker in a photographic lineup, and male DNA was discovered during a forensic examination of her underwear after she "submitted to the unimaginable and intrusive process of a sexual assault forensic exam (rape kit) at a local hospital." But Evanston police, it said, have been "unable to find him." It was not clear whether police had collected a DNA sample from the accused employee for comparison.

The parents also questioned why Evanston police have declined to provide them with the accused custodian's identity. They said they would try to locate him themselves if they had his name, since they considered it "imperative" to prevent him from working at another school district.

"Our family is devastated and shaken to the core. The Evanston community is shaken. Parents don't understand how this could have happened within District 65," the parents said.

"A child rapist is currently on the loose. We are pleading with you to bring this criminal to justice so he cannot hurt another child," they told Cook, in a letter also delivered to Evanston Mayor Steve Hagerty, an attorney for District 65 and Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx.

Cmdr. Ryan Glew, spokesperson for the Evanston police, declined to answer questions about whether officers had sought or received warrants for the custodian's DNA, his property or his arrest — or whether investigators interviewed him after the girl allegedly identified him in a photo lineup.

"It remains a pending and active investigation," Glew said, explaining he "can't comment further for the sake of maintaining the integrity of the investigation."

As Patch reported last month, Haven Principal Kathy Roberson told the school community Oct. 8 that a student reported that a staffer "engaged in inappropriate behavior toward this student." Following the incident, all custodians working at Haven were reassigned, according to parents in the district.

In her initial communication to parents, Roberson said, "individual(s) alleged to be involved in this matter have been placed on leave and will have no contact with students until the investigation is complete." She added that there were open investigations into the reported sexual assault by police, the district and the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services.

On Oct. 23, the girl's parents sent a letter to Roberson that was also delivered to Cook, Evanston Mayor Steve Hagerty, and the District 65 school board and parent-teacher organization. It presented administrators with a series of questions about the school's safety protocols, background checks and how the school would prevent an assault in the future.

In their initial letter, the parents said their daughter had been "brutally attacked" by a custodian in the girl's bathroom around 1:50 p.m. Oct. 4. The school's principal said administrators first learned of the incident Oct. 7, the following Monday.

That evening, the district's interim superintendents issued a statement on the matter. It said the district had not disclosed the student was sexually assaulted on school grounds by a custodian "to protect the privacy of the student involved and the integrity of the ongoing criminal investigations." The letter added that the district has active video surveillance systems in all of its schools and said administrators would look into "any other best practices" to make schools safer at all times.

In their Nov. 12 letter to Cook, the parents requested the chief ask for the assistance of the U.S. Marshals Service Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force "or an additional resource to help apprehend the man who raped our 12 year-old daughter" and questioned "how it is possible your department cannot locate" the accused school employee.

Earlier: Parents Accuse Custodian Of Sexually Assaulting Evanston Student