Man gets 2 years for attacking intern outside Dirksen Federal Courthouse

A man with a violent past who randomly assaulted a government intern outside the Dirksen Federal Courthouse last year was sentenced by a judge there to two years in prison Thursday.

But Marcus Mondy, 37, will face far more serious charges in state court — where he is charged in an unrelated case with attempted murder — when his federal sentence is complete.

The victim in Mondy’s federal case was a paid intern working for U.S. Pretrial Services at the federal courthouse in the Loop. She took her lunch break in Federal Plaza on May 2, 2018. When she began to return to the courthouse around 1:55 p.m., she passed in front of Mondy.

That’s when prosecutors say Mondy struck the woman from behind and hit her right eye. They said he also pulled her hair and threw her to the ground, scratching her face in the process. Mondy then fled down the nearby CTA stairs, records show.

Mondy pleaded guilty in April to assaulting a federal employee.

“I apologize to the victim,” Mondy said in a quiet voice Thursday. “And I didn’t mean to hurt her or scare her.”

Piyush Chandra, Mondy’s defense attorney, described his client as a “mentally ill homeless person.” And he argued federal sentencing guidelines give higher value to the lives of government employees, increasing potential penalties.

“If the exact same random act, at the same location (federal property), was committed upon an employee coming back from lunch who worked at (for instance) the nearby Dunkin Donuts, the Union League Club, or an attorney returning to the Monadnock Building, the penalties and statutes would be significantly different,” Chandra wrote in a memo last month.

U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman didn’t buy it. He said there’s a “pretty good chance” people walking around the courthouse are somehow involved in government business. And he noted Mondy has a “terrible record here of violent behavior.”

Prosecutors said Mondy has nine convictions for assault or battery since 2006, for conduct that involved hitting people’s heads and faces, spitting on them and cutting a victim’s hand with a box cutter. Since 2000, they said he has been arrested 17 times for assault or battery-related conduct.

Finally, Mondy faces an attempted murder charge in state court. Records allege he pushed a CTA passenger off a platform and onto a set of train tracks in April 2018 at 430 S. Western Ave.