97-year-old Arlington Heights woman's testimony read as sex assault trial begins
A 97-year-old Arlington Heights woman didn't live long enough to testify in person at the trial of the man charged with sexually assaulting her nearly two years ago.
But a court reporter spoke on her behalf Tuesday as testimony began in the trial of Frank Mendez, the 53-year-old Mount Prospect man who prosecutors say broke into the woman's home, struck her and sexually assaulted her on Aug. 20, 2015.
Veteran court reporter Kathleen Pagano read transcripts from a November 2015 hearing during which the woman described waking up "conscious of somebody being in the apartment."
The woman, who wore a medical alert wrist band, said someone struck her in the face as she made her way to the bathroom that night. She said she struggled, but the man continued to strike her. "I kept trying to protect myself," she said. "It went on for quite a long time."
Both of them wound up on the floor of the bathroom, she said.
The woman occasionally contradicted herself in her statements. She initially said the man hit her a dozen times. She later said he hit her three times. She said he touched parts of her body, but testified later she couldn't remember if he touched her.
The woman admitted she could not remember some of the attack and could not see the man's face nor estimate his height or weight. She also saids she could not remember what happened after he left and a security guard for the Church Creek assisted living and retirement facility found her.
Church Creek security guard Louis Sauceda testified Tuesday afternoon that the woman's medical alert pinged about 10:43 p.m. that evening, prompting him to call her apartment. When she didn't answer, Sauceda said he knocked loudly on her door, identified himself and entered the living room.
Sauceda testified he heard moaning coming from the bathroom, and the woman came toward him, undressed and in shock.
"She kept saying 'he hit me, he raped me,'" said Sauceda, who covered the woman with a robe and called 911.