Home invasion rapist was identified after pawning the victim’s PlayStations, prosecutors say – CWB Chicago
A man accused of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman at gunpoint during a home invasion in Auburn Gresham last Friday morning was caught after detectives learned he pawned two PlayStations taken from the victim’s home, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Judge Rivanda Doss Beal ordered Calvin Lindsey, 55, detained during a detention hearing at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse, where prosecutors charged him with multiple felonies including aggravated criminal sexual assault, home invasion, and kidnapping.
The attack unfolded at about 10:35 a.m. Friday in the 7700 block of South Racine, prosecutors told the judge. The victim told authorities she had taken her dogs outside to the back yard of her apartment and returned through the back door, which she locked, before heading into her bedroom. Lindsey, who lives nearby, allegedly forced his way through the back door and confronted the woman in her bedroom, prosecutors said.
He demanded money from the woman, forced her into the bathroom, and sexually assaulted her, prosecutors alleged. After the assault, the victim told authorities, the assailant ordered her to shower in an apparent attempt to destroy biological evidence. She largely kept the water off her body to preserve material investigators could potentially recover, ABC7 reported.
Lindsey then allegedly searched the woman’s apartment for valuables and left about 30 minutes after the home invasion began, taking the PlayStations, her purse, her phone, and someone else’s gun, prosecutors said. Surveillance cameras recorded him leaving with items in bags.
The victim immediately told her mother and others about the attack. The mother, the woman’s fiancé, and her landlord were among those who called 911. But the first Chicago police officer did not arrive until about four hours after the attack because CPD had no cops available to handle the call, CWB Chicago reported over the weekend. By then, the victim was undergoing treatment at Holy Cross Hospital.
Less than an hour after leaving the woman’s home, wearing some of the same clothing seen on the victim’s surveillance video, Lindsey entered a pawn shop in the 1500 block of West 47th Street, presented his state identification, and pawned the victim’s PlayStations, prosecutors claimed. Upon learning of that transaction, detectives placed Lindsey’s picture in a photo line-up, and the victim picked him out as the assailant.
The woman has started a GoFundMe campaign and said she intends to sue the city, according to ABC7. Such a lawsuit would face significant legal obstacles under the Public Duty Doctrine, a long-established principle holding that a government’s responsibility to provide public safety services applies to the community as a whole rather than to a specific individual. Courts have repeatedly relied on the doctrine to dismiss claims alleging police failed to prevent a crime or respond promptly to a request for help.
Original reporting you’ll see nowhere else, paid for by our readers. Click here to support our work.
