Police Blotter: Rodeo Fight, Sex Assault Arrest

Will County deputies called out to a Sunday rodeo near Briggs Street and Rosalind Avenue found about 30 men arguing, police said.

The argument escalated to fisticuffs and one man took a punch to the face, police said.

Lockport Township EMS personnel were sent to the scene but everyone involved refused medical treatment.

Break in sex assault case

detectives cracked a February sex assault, collaring a man who trapped a woman in his car and groped her, police said.

Razel Gates, 32, 1101 Ridgewood Ave., was arrested about 3:40 p.m. Wednesday. Police took him into custody near the intersection of Houbolt Road and Rock Creek Boulevard as he was driving to his job, police said.

Detectives had been investigating Gates since a 32-year-old woman told them he trapped her in his car and groped her against her will.

The woman reportedly told police she went to the 7-Eleven at the corner of Cass and Briggs streets to buy a newspaper but the store was out.

Gates told the woman he had a paper in his car and that he would sell it to her, police said. She went with him to the car and then allowed him to drive her home.

But instead of taking her home, he drove her to the dead end of Fuller Street and started to grope her and force her to fondle him, police said.

The woman struggled and eventually escaped. She also dropped her keys on the floor of the car, and when she snatched them back up she grabbed a receipt with Gates' name on it, police said.

The receipt helped police track down Gates, who reportedly told detectives that he and the woman did grope each other on Fuller, but that it was consensual.

Gates was booked into the county jail on charges of criminal sexual abuse and unlawful restraint.

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