Orland Man Gets 5 Years For Assault, Must Register As A Sex Offender

ORLAND PARK, IL — An Orland Park real estate mogul who pleaded guilty to criminal sex assault benefitted from the 1,880 days he spent on electronic monitoring, which counted as time served toward the five-year prison sentence he received Wednesday morning.

Gregory Perkins, 48, appeared before Cook County Judge John T. Gallagher in the Bridgeview Courthouse. Perkins was to have been sentenced last week, but his bond was revoked when it was learned that Perkins had been charged with a misdemeanor DUI while on electronic monitoring, after he crashed his Rolls-Royce Wraith into a median, according to a March 12 Hodgkins police report.

Perkins had pleaded guilty to a felony charge of criminal sexual assault last month. The victim and Perkins had gone out with a group of friends that included Perkins's wife, for an evening of dinner and drinks on Jan. 28, 2017, according to testimony at his bond hearing. When the victim became incapacitated after a few drinks, prosecutors said, Perkins drove her back to his home in the 13700 block of Legend Trail Lane in Orland Park. Prosecutors said the victim woke up later that night in the basement to find Perkins sexually assaulting her.

During his 2017 bond hearing, Perkins’ attorney, Sam Adam Jr., described his client as a “pillar of the community” who is involved in “lucrative business deals.” Bail was set at $100,000, and Perkins was placed on electronic monitoring during pretrial, with permission to work at the high-end restaurant owned by his wife in Countryside.

In exchange for his guilty plea, Perkins struck a deal that would require him to serve five years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. Due to the five years he spent on electronic monitoring, Perkins will not have to spend any time in prison. He will also be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life and will be on mandatory supervision of three years to life at the discretion of IDOC.

In her impact statement, which was read to the court in February when Perkins entered his guilty plea, the victim, a woman in her 40s, described the “five-year journey of healing from the unraveling of my life that began January 28, 2017.” The victim described becoming “unusually sick” after a few drinks and “throwing up outside the window of a moving vehicle” driven by Perkins, who was accompanied by his wife and ex-sister-in-law, according to the victim. When the party arrived at Perkins’ home, the victim fell out of the truck “because I was so sick and incapacitated.”

At some point during the night, the victim said, she woke up to find Perkins groping her buttocks and thighs. “His touch wasn’t welcomed but, I was only able to lift my head and swat my hand off to my side while saying 'NO, STOP!'” the victim said. She then described in her impact statement how Perkins pulled her pants down and assaulted her while she was incapacitated.

Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Jason Coelho told the judge during Wednesday’s sentencing that there was “penetration of the victim’s sex organ by the defendant’s penis.”

The next morning, the victim said, she woke up in the empty house in Orland Park where she had been put to bed in a second-story bedroom. Perkins was arrested several days later at a residence in the exclusive Shadow Ridge Estates subdivision in Palos Park.

“I have had the assistance of a therapist for the last four and a half years, but that therapy couldn’t stop my hair from falling out from the stress reliving that nightmare over and over,” the victim said in her statement. “Nor could the therapy get me to stop hiding in my bedroom for the first two years, sitting in the same spot so long that I caused an indention in my mattress. Therapy couldn’t prevent me from falling into the deep depression that I sunk into for two straight years, nor the bouts of depression that I still suffer from today. My life fell apart, and it took me giving up everything and starting over … in an attempt to get my life back on track. This will forever be a struggle for me, and I realize you never completely heal from this kind of trauma; you only learn how to manage.”

Under his plea agreement, Perkins has five days to register as a sex offender with Illinois State Police. During Wednesday’s hearing, an adult probation officer sought clarification on his residential address. There was also discussion of Perkins being able to interact with his seven young children, since the sex offense he was convicted for did not involve a child.

“Mr. Perkins, I just want to remind you the sentence for any future conviction as a result of this plea could be increased, there could also be a higher possibility of imposing consecutive sentences for any future offense,” Judge Gallagher said. “In your case, lifetime registration [as a sex offender] could restrict or probably would restrict where you can work, live or physically be present. Another result of this plea could be an impact upon your ability to retain or obtain housing in the public or private market, to obtain or retain employment and to retain or obtain a firearm, occupational or driver’s license.”

Perkins has 30 days to appeal his guilty plea, after which the case would be set for trial. He reiterated to the judge that he understood the conditions of his guilty plea. Asked if he wished to make a statement, Perkins apologized to the judge for being arrested on a charge of driving under the influence, saying it was an issue with his blood pressure medication.