Two charged with harassing women at Des Plaines depot

Des Plaines police have charged their second man in 10 days with harassing women at the downtown Metra depot, and Police Chief Jim Prandini says surveillance cameras are on the way.

Omar Ortiz, 31, of the 9300 block of Bay Colony Drive, Des Plaines, was arrested around 3:20 p.m. Friday outside the depot at 1501 E. Miner St. and charged with disorderly conduct. Police reports said he harassed two women, brushed up against them, and swore at them when they told him to leave them alone.

His court date is Feb. 14, but on Monday around 10:20 a.m., he was arrested again at the depot and charged with criminal trespass. His court date for that arrest is Jan. 26.

Around 3:10 p.m. Dec. 28, James Brian Fitzsimmons, 53, of the 1300 block of West Sherman Avenue, Chicago, was charged with two counts of battery. Police reports claim he sat down next to a 20-year-old woman, grabbed her hands, held her chin, placed his leg over hers and began kissing her cheek and neck.

She ran from the station, got into her friend's car and phoned her father. He arrived and confronted Fitzsimmons, who reports said pushed the man in the chest and walked away as the woman's father phoned police.

The father followed Fitzsimmons while talking on the phone to the 911 dispatcher. An officer arrived and arrested Fitzsimmons, who reports said was highly intoxicated.

“We are pretty vigilant,” Prandini said, explaining that police walk through the station on almost an hourly basis.

While the latest incidents aren't typical, he said that problems with homeless people and vagrants loitering at the train station and occasionally harassing people increase in the winter as they look for places to get warm. The problem is bigger in the daytime as at night, they will go to shelters, he said.

He said alcohol is a major contributor to the problem and officers regularly arrest people near the station for drinking in public. Some people have been ordered to stay away from the station or face arrest for criminal trespass, he said.

“A train station is set up for people waiting to catch a train,” he said.

The city has used money from a Homeland Security grant to buy security cameras for the station and the train tracks in the downtown area. Prandini said he hopes they can be installed soon, depending on the weather.