CHICAGO – A judge on Friday imposed a 15-year prison sentence on a man found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman as she walked home in the Loop.
Officials said the woman was walking to her apartment from a nearby friend’s house around 1 a.m. on May 21, 2021, when surveillance cameras captured images of a man following her in the 600 block of South Plymouth.
As she prepared to enter her building, he closed the distance, punched her in the back of the head, grabbed her arm and dragged her into a nearby alley. Isolated from view, he straddled the floor, lifted her dress and touched her genitals as she screamed for help and struggled to keep her dress down, prosecutors said. The attacker hit the woman in the right eye and put his hand over her mouth.
But he ran away when a car drove by and scared him.
While reviewing CTA security footage and other cameras, Chicago police officers noticed a unique tattoo on the attacker’s neck: two letters drawn in a Superman shield. They ran the tattoo design through a law enforcement database and it turned up a hit: Leslie Borden.
Investigators tried to arrest Borden several times but finally caught up with him early last year.
Borden, 33, took the case to a jury trial last month. The panel handed down guilty verdicts on four counts: attempted aggravated assault occasioning bodily harm, criminal sexual assault occasioning bodily harm, and two counts of aggravated assault in a public place. They found Borden not guilty of aggravated kidnapping.
During a sentencing hearing on Friday, Judge Alfredo Maldonado consolidated the battery charges with the other charges. He sentenced Borden to 15 years on the attempted sexual assault charge and 14 years on the sexual abuse charge. The sentences will be served concurrently.
