Convicted Domestic Abuser From Joliet Freed After Latest Arrest

JOLIET, IL — The Will County State's Attorney's Office of Jim Glasgow argued that 26-year-old Joliet domestic abuse defendant Troy Swinney needed to be locked up, following his latest arrest in Joliet on Oct. 29, but a Will County judge ruled against that.

Following Swinney's SAFE-T Act pretrial detention hearing, Will County Judge Donald DeWilkens ordered Swinney freed from the Will County Jail immediately, on his own recognizance. The judge also ordered that Swinney, who lives in the 100 block of North Hickory Street, remain under home confinement during the hours of 1:30 a.m. to 4:30 a.m. Swinney was also put on GPS Monitoring, court rules show.

Furthermore, he must stay away from the Plainfield woman he is accused of attacking, the judge ruled. A Will County grand jury, last week, indicted Swinney on two felony charges of domestic battery. This week, Swinney returned to the Will County Courthouse along with his new criminal defense attorney, Anna Nugent, of downtown Joliet's law firm of O'Dekirk, Allred & Rhodes.

According to Will County's prosecutors, Swinney also has a 2017 criminal conviction for domestic battery out of Grundy County in Morris.

Around 11 a.m. on Oct. 29, Joliet police were called to Mission Boulevard and Trailsend Lane because a man was chasing down a woman in the street. At the scene, a witness told Joliet police that she saw Swinney punching and pushing the victim, prosecutors outlined.

Officers spoke with the crying victim, who suffered cuts on her right elbow. She told officers she was fine and nothing was going on.

However, officers spoke with another witness who told them he saw Swinney "push, strike and spit" on the woman," court files note.

The victim refused to fill out Joliet police's domestic violence paperwork, and she refused photographs, telling the Joliet's officers that Swinney had pushed her, "but that there was no other physical abuse," the prosecutor noted.

According to court records, Swinney told officers he "booted" her, and she fell to the ground. Swinney said he "kicked her in the ass one time," court records reflect.

"The defendant's social history tends to indicate a violent, abusive, or assaultive nature," argued Assistant State's Attorney Charlene Recio. "Specificially, the defendant has been arrested for domestic battery on one prior occasion, June 20, 2017, the defendant committed and was subsequently charged and convicted out of Grundy County ... for ... domestic battery.

"The People submit that the defendant's pretrial release poses a real and present threat to the safety of the named victim in this case ... as well as the community in general."