Crime & Safety
Homeless Man Pleads Guilty to Spitting on State's Attorney, Ordered Not to Spit on Anyone Anymore
The Will County assistant state's attorney was trying to eat her lunch by a downtown Joliet fountain when the homeless man spat on her.
A homeless man spent all of Thursday morning vacillating on whether to plead guilty to spitting on a Will County prosecutor last spring.
The attorney for Richard Arreguin, 59, urged him to take the deal, which would allow him to walk out of jail a free man. Arreguin argued that he wanted to go to trial but attorney Amy Christiansen told him his chances of emerging victorious were less than good.
"I have a better chance of winning the Powerball," said Christiansen, who also repeatedly told Arreguin, "We're not winning this thing."
Arreguin eventually agreed to take the deal but balked in the middle of the proceedings and told Judge Daniel Rozak he wanted to go to trial after all.
Before calling a break so Arreguin could again confer with Christiansen, Judge Rozak explained that if he was found guilty, Arreguin could be hit with a five-year prison sentence.
"If I go along with the negotiations today, you're going home or to a shelter," Rozak told Arreguin.
After talking some more with Christiansen, Arreguin went back before the judge and pleaded guilty.
The deal cleared the way for special prosecutor Dave Neal to reduce a felony aggravated battery charge to a misdemeanor. Arreguin also pleaded guilty to violating an order of protection. He was sentenced to 364 days in the county jail for both charges and was to be released with time served after his court appearance.
Arreguin was charged with violating an order of protection after police found him sleeping in the vestibule of St. Anthony's church on Scott Street. The church is within 1,000 yards of the downtown apartment where the woman who obtained the protective order against Arreguin lived, Neal said.
In her petition for the order, the woman accused Arreguin of stalking her, exposing himself to her, possibly drugging her, groping her and spitting on her.
Arreguin spat on the prosecutor in April. She was eating lunch with another assistant state's attorney by the North Chicago Street fountain when she "felt something hit the back of her head and she heard a spitting noise," Neal said.
As part of the plea deal, Neal said Arreguin "will be specifically ordered not to spit anyone."
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