Highland Park man admits bike path rape

A Highland Park man faces up to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to the 2009 rape and robbery of a woman on the Green Bay Trail bike path.

Eduardo Franco, 22, will receive a minimum of six years behind bars when he returns to Lake County Circuit Court on July 25 for sentencing.

Assistant State’s Attorney Marc Bangser said Franco followed the 32-year-old woman onto the trail after she got off a commuter train from Chicago at a nearby railroad station around 3 a.m. on July 15, 2009.

He knocked her to the ground, raped her and then ran off with her cellphone. Franco was identified through the tape from a video surveillance camera at a store close to the trail, and his DNA was found on the woman’s clothing, Bangser said.

He was arrested the following day and has been held on $1 million bond since his arrest.

Franco pleaded guilty to aggravated criminal sexual assault during a hearing before Associate Judge Christopher Stride, and a charge of robbery was dropped in exchange for the plea.