Jan. 09--After she fended off a masked attacker in her apartment, a terrified Tinley Park woman ran upstairs to a neighbor she knew was a firefighter, authorities said.
But prosecutors allege that that neighbor -- Chicago Ridge fire Deputy Chief Gary Swiercz -- didn't come to the door because he was her attacker, and he was outside tearing off his black clothes and hiding evidence of his crime.
"Because the defendant was a firefighter, she thought he would be able to help her," said Amari Dawson, a Cook County assistant state's attorney, reading from a report Tuesday at the Bridgeview courthouse.
Swiercz, who retired from the Chicago Ridge department Monday after more than 20 years, bowed his head during the hearing, his head slumping further as Dawson read the account of the alleged attack. He has been free on $150,000 bond and was ordered to wear an electronic monitoring device.
Wearing a dark suit, he faced the front of the courtroom during the hearing, never glancing back at the throng of reporters standing in the gallery. He said nothing to reporters as he walked to his car, flanked by four sheriff's deputies.
Judge Peter Felice denied Dawson's request to hold Swiercz without bond or to substantially raise his bond, noting that Swiercz had no prior record and has been living at his parents' house in Worth since his release from jail.
After police arrived the night of the attack, Dawson said, an officer went to interview Swiercz, who lived in a second-story apartment on the opposite side of the six-unit building where he and the woman lived. The officer noticed that Swiercz had black makeup around his eyes.
Questioned by police, Swiercz allegedly told them he had donned a mask and gloves and entered the woman's apartment, covered her mouth with his hand and held a knife to her throat. The two struggled.
Swiercz told police "he realized in the middle of the home invasion that he was a public servant and he should not be doing this, and that's when he ran out," Dawson said.
The woman told police she had fallen asleep on the couch Saturday night and woke up when she heard a noise. She saw the masked man in her apartment. He allegedly covered her mouth and held a knife to her throat and asked, "Do you want to die or bleed?" and the victim said she could smell alcohol on his breath, Dawson said.
Swiercz allegedly forced her to her feet and walked her toward the kitchen. The woman said she believed the knife blade was dull because it didn't cut her.
As they grappled in the kitchen, Swiercz allegedly threw the woman to the floor and then slammed her head three times. Swiercz ran out a back door, and the woman ran upstairs to his apartment, which was unlocked and empty, authorities said.
Prosecutors have said witnesses saw Swiercz in the parking lot that night, apparently throwing something in a garbage bin behind the building. At a bond hearing Sunday, they said Swiercz was carrying a knife, duct tape, a sex toy and lubricant when he entered the woman's apartment. Dawson said Tuesday that investigators found the knife, ski mask, black clothes and other items.
There was no relationship between Swiercz and the woman, other than living in the same building, Dawson said.
"She just knew him as a neighbor," the prosecutor said.
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