A Chicago cab driver accused of kidnapping a woman and sexually assaulting her has pleaded guilty in exchange for probation, according to a report published on Friday.
The CWB Chicago article said prosecutors dropped several Class X felony charges in the deal made with the man, whose name is Tarek Masri.
“This shows how broken the prosecutor office is. No consideration for the VICTIMS of crimes,” one social media user said of the report.
“IL doesn’t care what u do anymore! No jail for anyone!” another wrote, while someone else said, “Chicago – Voted Best City for Criminals 2022.”
Authorities arrested Masri in 2018, thanks to DNA findings in the assault, which reportedly took place a few years before, according to the outlet:
Early on June 13, 2015, the then-23-year-old victim went out with friends to celebrate her passing the Certified Public Accountant exam, prosecutors said during Masri’s initial bail hearing. At the end of the night, the victim and other women took Masri’s cab to one of the women’s homes in Ravenswood. However, the victim told friends that she preferred to sleep in her own bed, and she asked Masri to drive her home.
She nodded off in the backseat and a friend wrote down the taxi’s number when it pulled away, according to prosecutors.
The report continued:
Prosecutors said Masri drove the victim for three hours around Ravenswood, Lincoln Park, and Lakeview. Then, they alleged, he stopped his taxi in the 2600 block of North Paulina in Lincoln Park and sexually assaulted the woman while she was asleep in the back seat. He later dropped the victim off near her Lakeview apartment building.
The case remained open. In March of 2017 Masri was arrested on traffic violations and for driving with a suspended license, the outlet said.
He was asked to provide a DNA sample and charges were reportedly filed when the results came back in 2018.
Once a judge handed down the man’s sentence this week, he was required to register as a sex offender and provide DNA for indexing.
Meanwhile, a Democrat state’s attorney blasted legislation that would put a stop to cash bail in Illinois, claiming it would allow a huge number of alleged criminals to be loose on the streets.
Will County state’s attorney Jim Glasgow, a Democrat, zeroed in on the Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today (SAFE-T) Act. “It will destroy the state of Illinois,” he declared.
The act was signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) in 2021 and is slated to take effect in January 2023.