No bail for man charged with Schaumburg home invasion, domestic battery

A man who pleaded guilty to domestic battery earlier this month was ordered held without bail Thursday on new charges of domestic battery, violating an order of protection and home invasion.

Announcing her no-bail order, Cook County Judge Ellen Mandeltort said defendant Aleksander Bondar posed "a real and present threat" and the charges "raise a concern for serious escalation of violence in the future."

The new charges against Bondar, 55, involve the same woman who prosecutors say was the victim of the domestic battery Bondar pleaded guilty to on Aug. 21. He received one year of probation in exchange for that plea.

Last week, after he was released from Cook County jail, Bondar went to the woman's Schaumburg apartment, an action prohibited by the order of protection against him, said Assistant Cook County State's Attorney Loukas Kalliantasis. Bondor, who authorities say is homeless, stayed in a parking garage for five days, then entered the woman's building carrying a metal broom handle and waited outside her apartment, Kalliantasis said.

As the woman exited, Bondar struck her with the broom handle and pushed her back into the apartment where he grabbed her by her hair and dragged her first to the bathroom and then to the kitchen where he smashed her phone when she tried to call police, Kalliantasis said.

The woman screamed for help and pleaded for him to calm down, Kalliantasis said. Eventually, Bondar agreed to let her leave for work. She then drove her car to a restaurant parking lot and called Schaumburg police, who found Bondar in the apartment parking lot in possession of the metal broom handle, Kalliantasis said.

According to prosecutors, Bondar told police "it was possible he punched the wall and accidentally hit the victim." Bondar also claimed he did not hit the woman who he suggested may have hit herself, Kalliantasis said.

The woman had multiple bruises and bleeding on her scalp where hair appeared to be pulled out, he said.

Objecting to prosecutors' request, Assistant Cook County Public Defender Bailee Myers argued no bail would be inappropriate because his "is not an offense that requires a natural life sentence."

Bondar next appears in court on Sept. 18.