One of about 50 demonstrators protesting the "jailing of people'' in Cook County Jail will be spending time there Wednesday after his arrest Monday night on charges of hitting a sheriff's officer in the face with a tree branch, officials said.
Alexander Cachinero-Gorman, 23, originally from Spain and also of the Little Village neighborhood, was charged with felony aggravated battery, said Frank Bilecki, a spokesman for Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.
Cachinero-Gorman is expected to appear in Leighton Criminal Courts Building Wednesday after being processed in Maywood, said Bilecki.
Bilecki said no one was hurt during the incident that happened about 7 p.m. outside the court building in the 2600 block of South California Avenue.
The group, protesting the "jailing of people,'' were banging pots and pans and chanting "Free the people,'' Bilecki said.
When the group moved to outside Division 11 of the jail at 3015 South California and began taking pictures of the building, Chicago Police and sheriff's police asked them to move away from the building.
"The group then walked across California and then westbound on 31st Street and stopped in front of our pre-release building and began to scream and chant loudly to get the attention of the inmates,'' Bilecki said. "Some of the inmates appeared in the windows.''
Demonstrators then began shaking the perimeter fence and gate and were told to back away from the fence.
Cachinero-Gorman was brandishing a "very large" walking stick that was a branch from a tree and had a black flag affixed to it.
"He proceeded to strike one of the officers in the face with it,'' Bilecki said.
Cachinero-Gorman was arrested. No one had to be treated at a hospital.
Copyright 2013 - Chicago Tribune
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
