Oak Park Teen Charged in New Year's Eve Assault in Chicago

An Oak Park teen is among two people charged in connection with the brutal rape and beating of a Highland Park girl on New Year's Eve, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Aanwar Barbour, 16, of Oak Park, was arrested March 12 at Oak Park-River Forest High School. Also arrested was Terrance Ford, a 15-year-old who resides on the city's northwest side. According to the Sun-Times, both were charged as adults with aggravated criminal sexual assault, kidnapping and robbery.

A third suspect remains at large. A law enforcement source told the Sun-Times that suspect is believed to have fled the state and is considered a fugitive.

Barbour and Ford appeared in bond court on Tuesday, where a judge ordered them held in lieu of $750,000 bail.

They're accused of sexually assaulting and beating an 18-year-old Highland Park woman who was turned away from a New Year's Eve show at the Congress Theatre in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood.

According to media accounts, the woman made her way into a nearby restaurant, where she encountered Barbour, Ford and several other young men. They left the restaurant with the intoxicated woman, eventually propping her up against a fence and fondling her.

At some point, prosecutors said during the bond hearing, the woman fell to the ground and hit her head. The pair allegedly "picked the woman up and took her down a side street, went through her purse, then carried her to a grass parkway in the 2100 block of North Rockwell, where she was assaulted," the Tribune reported.

She was robbed of about $80 and jewelry, according to the Sun-Times, and was later found unconscious and bloodied.

Prosecutors said surveillance footage, witness accounts and DNA evidence link Ford with the victim. Barbour’s attorney told prosecutors the Oak Park teen was innocent and "denied DNA linked Barbour to the victim. He claimed that cameras captured Barbour trying to help the victim," according to the Tribune.