An Austin man was charged Tuesday with allegedly sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl on a CTA Purple Line train during busy hours last Saturday. A Cook County judge called the assault a “brazen, bold, criminal act.”
“The fact that he is willing to do this in an open area…is direct evidence of his dangerousness,” prosecutors argued during a detention hearing Tuesday morning.
The judge agreed, ordering Anfernee Thomas, 27, held in Cook County jail pending trial.
The girl was heading home from a friend’s house at 5 p.m. Saturday when Thomas approached her on the CTA platform and asked if she wanted to smoke, state prosecutors said. The girl said “no,” and Thomas asked her to come to his house. She allegedly said “no” again.
The girl then boarded a Purple Line train and Thomas followed, prosecutors said. He asked the girl to sit next to him and give him her number, which she did out of fear.
Thomas then told the girl to follow him behind a partition on the train, prosecutors said. The girl allegedly told him, “I’m 16,” to which Thomas responded, “Oh OK.”
Thomas then sexually assaulted the girl, prosecutors said. He stopped when his friend, also on board the train, yelled they were at the next stop.
The girl immediately exited the train and told a CTA official she had been assaulted and that Thomas was wearing a blue coat and had a tattoo under his eye.
Thomas was located on a train car, which had been stopped because of the attack. His jacket was turned inside out, indicating he was attempting to evade police, prosecutors argued.
When the girl was brought to identify him she burst into tears, prosecutors said.
Thomas and the girl are seen on video footage sitting on the train, but the alleged attack occurred outside the view of cameras.
Thomas’s lawyer argued the girl sat next to Thomas and gave her number under no threat of violence. The lawyer stated no witnesses saw a physical struggle or heard a cry for help.
The lawyer also argued the jacket could have been turned inside out to begin with and there was no evidence Thomas was attempting to evade police.
The judge did not believe the alleged encounter to be consensual, as Thomas’s lawyer suggested.
Thomas has previous stalking and drug convictions. He also has a pending DUI case in Kane County.
He is due back in court on March 13.
