Rockdale Grandfather Suffers Road Rash After Knife-Wielding Teen Shifts SUV Into Reverse: Prosecutors

ROCKDALE, IL — For being a community of barely 2,000 people, the village of Rockdale has quite a bit of police activity. Last week, the Rockdale Police Department captured 18-year-old Bolingbrook resident Tresean Spells in connection with allegations that he tried to kill the unborn child of his pregnant girlfriend and then tried to run over the girl's grandfather after refusing to get out of the grandfather's SUV.

The Will County State's Attorney's Office of Jim Glasgow filed a petition to deny pretrial release for Spells on three aggravated battery crimes, three domestic battery counts, aggravated assault and reckless driving. After hearing the evidence, Will County's judiciary granted the motion under the dangerousness standard of the Illinois SAFE-T Act.

What happened in Rockdale?

The following set of events were outlined by the Will County State's Attorney's Office in their successful petition to keep Spells detained in the jail.

According to prosecutors, at 9:42 p.m. on July 23, Rockdale Police Officer Jesse Nelson and Officer Brittany Stankus were dispatched to the intersection of Meadow Avenue and Wheeler Avenue for a vehicle that struck a pedestrian. The female victim, who turns 17 in August, was known to the officers and they knew she was pregnant. She had a purple bruise on the right side of her face, covering her ear, that extended down the right side of her neck with visible swelling, prosecutors told the judge.

The victim told the officers she is pregnant with Spells' child, and Rockdale police officers were already familiar with him, officials said.

According to court documents, the pregnant victim said Spells was driving her grandfather's white Ford Edge when he ran over her grandfather. The teenage girl also revealed that Spells hit the side of her face.

According to court files, "She explained that earlier in the evening, Tresean became angry with her because he believed she was upset with him. During the disagreement, Tresean cornered her in the living room while holding a knife and yelling at her ... when she attempted to push Tresean away while pleading with him not to stab her, he slapped her in the face and punched her in the stomach."

The Rockdale teenager told the police "she believed Tresean intentionally struck her on the side of the abdomen because he was attempting to kill their child," prosecutors said.

Rockdale Police Make Arrest

After Spells was put into the Rockdale police car, the officers recovered a pocketknife from the front of his waistband, prosecutors noted. The teenage victim then elaborated, telling Rockdale officers that "just before this incident, Tresean wanted her to have an abortion if they were not going to be together. During that time, Tresean took the knife out of his waistband and held the knife, so it was pointing to the floor, threatening (her) that he was going to stab her in the stomach to kill the baby if they could not be together.

"She convinced Tresean to take her to the hospital so they could get an abortion, thinking that she could get a nurse's attention and signal for help," prosecutors said.

According to court documents, after the two teenagers returned to Rockdale after an uneventful visit to St. Joe's hospital, the girl's grandfather came outside, and he ordered Spells to get out of his vehicle.

"When Tresean refused, (the grandfather) attempted to get him out of the vehicle by opening the driver's side door. (The grandfather) stepped into the doorway and attempted to remove Tresean physically," prosecutors outlined. "As Tresean refused to exit the vehicle, he put the Ford in reverse, trapping James between the vehicle and the door, and dragged him a short distance before coming to a stop. This caused James to get road rash on his back and damaged the door frame."

Minutes later, Rockdale Chief of Police Robert Dykstra and the Daley's Ambulance Service arrived on the scene. The pregnant girl was taken to St. Joe's hospital, where a written statement was taken. As for the girl's grandfather, officials said he refused any medical treatment from Daley's Ambulance Service.

Prosecutors furnished the following criminal history as part of their effort to make sure that Spells remains in the Will County Jail under the dangerousness standard: