Palos Man Accused Of Sex Assault Ordered Detained In Jail By New Judge

PALOS HILLS, IL—After three tries, Cook County assistant state's attorneys finally convinced a judge to detain a Palos Hills man accused of drugging and sexually assaulting a Michigan woman he met at a concert.

Timothy O'Connell, 36, is facing three felony counts of criminal sexual assault. O'Connell was granted pretrial release in May following his initial pre-detention hearing. He had been wearing a GPS ankle monitor and allowed two days of "unrestricted movement" while his case was pending.

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Prosecutors went back before the judge a second time on June 8 when videos that were unavailable at his initial hearing had been extracted from O'Connell's phone, which prosecutors said O'Connell took of himself assaulting the limp, unconscious woman. Arguing before Cook County Judge Linzie Jones at the Bridgeview Courthouse that O'Connell was a danger to every woman in the community, their petition for detainment was denied the next day.

Judge Jones stated that the pretrial conditions he put into place to protect the alleged victim, who lived hours away, were adequate. The judge placed additional conditions on O'Connell's pretrial release that he was prohibited from posting videos of the alleged sexual assault on adult porn sites.

O'Connell met the woman, who is in her thirties, at the Slaughter To Prevail concert on April 20 at the Aragon Ballroom on Chicago's North Side, which O'Connell attended with two male friends. Both are identified in the court documents as Witness 2 and Witness 3. The woman gave her phone to her boyfriend to hold before becoming separated from him while being tossed around the mosh pit.

Prosecutors said O'Connell, who had earlier noticed the woman, was waiting for her when security escorted her out of the mosh pit. The woman told investigators that she had 1.5 drinks at the concert and was not inebriated.

O'Connell offered to buy her a drink. After taking a few sips, the woman said she had no recollection of the rest of the night, except for being dragged across carpeting, according to court documents obtained by Patch.

Cook County Sheriff's police took over the investigation from Palos Hills police to avoid a potential conflict of interest because O'Connell's mother is a Palos Hills alderman.

Security video from the Aragon showed O'Connell carrying her out of the venue and putting her into his friend's car, prosecutors said. O'Connell, the woman and his two friends then drove back to Palos Hills. Witness 2 and Witness, told Cook County Sheriff's Police that the woman was crying and emotional on the ride home. They also said that O'Connell was not inebriated.

Security video from Witness 2's condo building in the 11100 block of Spathis Drive in Palos Hills, also showed the woman stumbling, dry heaving, and throwing up at the entry door and in the hall by the door of Witness 2's condo. Witness 2 told police that he laid the woman down on the living room floor and put a bucket by her. Then he retired for the night in his bedroom. He left O'Connell alone in the living room.

The next morning, when the woman woke up in a state of undress, she grabbed O'Connell's phone, which prosecutors said did not have a passcode, and texted her boyfriend. She ordered an Uber and left the house to wait for it to come. Court documents said O'Connell followed her out of the building, but the Uber driver almost didn't let the woman into his vehicle until O'Connell said he was helping her.

The woman reunited with her boyfriend. Prosecutors said they drove back to Michigan and went directly to a local hospital. There, she received a toxicology test, but the results came back negative for date rape drugs. The next day, she agreed to a forensic sexual assault exam. According to the examiner, there was evidence that a sexual assault had taken place. The woman reported the sex assault to Michigan police, who contacted Palos Hills police.

O'Connell was arrested on May 27. Sheriff's police said O'Connell initially denied having sex with the woman but then changed his story. He is also alleged to have told investigators that he couldn't remember the woman's name, although a subpoena from Facebook showed him searching for the woman's Facebook profile. He also is said to have identified himself for police in a still image extracted from the video.

Sheriff's police found the text message the woman sent to her boyfriend, which they said had been deleted from O'Connell's phone.

On July 16, assistant state's attorneys went before a new judge, John Gallagher, at the Bridgeview Courthouse, where O'Connell's case had been assigned for trial. Prosecutors argued that Judge Jones erred when he didn't consider the totality of the public safety threat O'Connell posed to the community.

Court documents also revealed that O'Connell had purportedly searched for "date rape" drugs, such as Rohypnol, which prosecutors stated only remain in the system for six hours. The woman was identified by her tattoos and face, which is shown in the six videos extracted from O'Connell's phone, including a single shot of O'Connell's face, prosecutors said.

Further, the assistant state's attorneys argued O'Connell's search history showed him searching the internet for pornographic videos showing sex acts with "unconscious" victims.

Also included in the court documents was O'Connell's estranged wife, identified as "Witness 4," who reported that during their time together, O'Connell would use the internet platform Omegle, where he allegedly shared photos that he had surreptitiously taken of his then-wife naked.

Witness 4 had earlier recounted a 2016 incident when they were still dating, when O'Connell allegedly laced her drink with knockout drugs during a night out at Gaelic Park. Prosecutors said she told investigators that O'Connell showed her a video, where he and a friend, "Teddy," took turns assaulting her while unconscious. The video had reportedly been recorded by Teddy's girlfriend. She told investigators she was scared to go to police at the time because they were engaged.

His estranged wife also claimed that O'Connell had threatened her with his family's political ties. She married him anyway.

O'Connell's attorney, Robert Olson, argued that the estranged wife was influenced by news media outlets that published some facts of the case, who reached out to Cook County Sheriff's Police with additional claims. Olson said the couple, who share a child, signed a dissolution agreement on April 1.

"They spent Mother's Day together with [O'Connell's] family," Olson told Patch, who said he had pictures of the happy family gathering. "Once he was charged, she stated that they no longer had an agreement and went to [CCSO] police."

Judge Gallagher ordered O'Connell to be detained in Cook County Jail while his case is pending. O'Connell is due back in court Aug. 26 at the Bridgeview Courthouse.

"[Prosecutors] were shooting for him," Olson said. "He cooperated and gave them all the info they needed."