Man charged with sexually assaulting cellmate at Cook County Jail

A man charged with sexually assaulting his cellmate at the Cook County Jail was denied bail Monday.

Carlos Ruiz, 21, is facing a charge of aggravated criminal sexual assault in the Oct. 24, 2016 attack at the jail’s Division 10 building, according to Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.

Ruiz, who was 19 at the time, had been cellmates with the 25-year-old man for about two weeks before the attack, prosecutors said during a hearing at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse.

While in their cell, the two men cooked food and started playing cards, prosecutors said. The 25-year-old man took “a handful of pills” he had collected by trading food and his medication. He was standing by the cell door when he turned around and saw Ruiz holding a knife, prosecutors said.

Ruiz allegedly demanded sex from the older man, who refused. They pair soon began to fight, prosecutors said. Then, the older man started feeling the effects of his medication and passed out. When he woke up, he realized he had been sexually assaulted and they began to fight again, prosecutors said.

Guards at the jail were alerted and took the older man for treatment. He told jail staff what happened and a sexual assault kit was completed. DNA evidence recovered matched Ruiz, prosecutors said.

At the time of the assault, Ruiz was being held at the jail for a 2012 break-in and sexual assault in the East Side neighborhood, according to court records.

Shortly after midnight on that date, residents of a home in the 9600 block of South Ewing heard banging on their door, according to Chicago Police. Upon opening the door, Benjamin Ruiz and Carlos Ruiz — then ages 18 and 15 — burst into the house and chased two men who were inside away. A 49-year-old woman tried to escape through a back door but was caught by Carlos and Benjamin Ruiz. They threatened her with a knife and repeatedly sexually assaulted her, police said.

Carlos Ruiz and Benjamin Ruiz were each indicted on felony charges of home invasion and aggravated criminal sexual assault in that case on July 28, 2014, according to court records.

Benjamin Ruiz pleaded guilty to home invasion in June 2017 and was sentenced to 25 years in prison, state and county records show. He is currently in the custody of the Illinois Department of Corrections at the Lawrence Correctional Center in Sumner.

The criminal case was dropped against Carlos Ruiz in December 2016 and transferred to juvenile court, according to Tandra Simonton, a spokeswoman for the State’s Attorney’s Office. Carlos Ruiz eventually pleaded guilty to a count of home invasion and was sentenced to time served and released.

After being released from custody, police officers were unable to locate him and an arrest warrant was issued for the jail assault, prosecutors said.

A no-bail warrant charging him in the jail sexual assault was issued in December 2017, according to court records. Carlos Ruiz was taken into custody in Columbiana, Alabama and extradited back to Cook County on Friday to face the jail sex assault charge.

“The state’s proffer is sickening on so many levels,” Judge John F. Lyke Jr. said before denying Carlos Ruiz bail on Monday. “I can’t think of anything worse you could to a male.”

Lyke said he found Ruiz to be a threat to the community and “any human being he comes in contact with.”

Ruiz will be housed alone while a detainee on the current charge, according to Cook County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Sophia Ansari.

“Our jail investigations unit conducted the investigation after the incident was reported, and they did an excellent job to secure charges against this offender,” Ansari said in an emailed statement.

Carlos Ruiz’s next court date was set for July 29.