Des Plaines man pleads guilty to battery

A Des Plaines man accused of striking a woman and forcing her to accompany him pleaded guilty to an amended charge of misdemeanor domestic battery in Skokie.

Fernando Gonzalez, 26, of the 9200 block of Golf Road, was sentenced to two years of probation and 60 days in Cook County Jail in exchange for his guilty plea to the misdemeanor charge, court records show. He was also ordered to pay $490 in fines. He originally had been charged with aggravated domestic battery.

The victim testified at the hearing that she did not want Gonzalez to have a felony conviction, said a spokesman from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.

Gonzalez struck the woman after the two argued over personal matters, Cook County sheriff’s police reported following Gonzalez’s arrest last year. He then forced her to go with him to a Chicago church where he had worked before he was fired because of a prior domestic battery arrest, police said.