Infamous escapee facing new federal charges

The man who escaped from law enforcement custody, carjacked a Roselle woman and robbed a bank while leading suburban authorities on a two-day manhunt is facing new federal charges stemming from those 2009 events.

Robert Maday, now 41 and formerly of Elk Grove Village, was indicted late Thursday on federal charges of escape, armed bank robbery, being a felon-in-possession of firearms and using firearms during the commission of a violent crime.

Maday escaped from the custody of two Cook County state’s attorney investigators in September 2009 as they drove him from Stateville Correctional Center near Joliet to the Rolling Meadows courthouse for a hearing. He stole the investigators’ clothes and firearms during the escape. Both investigators were later fired.

Maday remained on the loose overnight, then accosted a Roselle woman arriving for work in Hoffman Estates the next morning and took her car. He used the car and weapons to rob a bank in Bloomingdale, taking almost $33,000, federal prosecutors said.

Later in the afternoon, Maday led police on a high-speed chase that ended when he crashed the stolen car along Route 59 in West Chicago. He was apprehended shortly after the crash.

Maday pleaded guilty to a state carjacking charge in 2010. The woman whose car was stolen filed a civil suit against the county, state’s attorney’s office and the two investigators a year after the escape. That case is still pending.

The new federal charges carry penalties that could net Maday a life sentence if he is convicted, prosecutors said. Maday has been in federal custody since the escape. It’s unknown when he’ll next be in court.