No Bail for South Loop Assault Suspect

By Chuck Sudo in News on Mar 29, 2011 9:00PM

Cortez Foster, the suspect in Saturday's beating and sexual assault of a 65-year-old man in the South Loop, has been ordered held without bail. We're also starting to find out the extent of the injuries suffered by the victim in the beating, and they're even more "WTF?" than advertised.

Foster and the victim were allegedly interacting with each other near the 800 block of South Michigan Avenue just after midnight Saturday when Foster started beating the victim about the head and face, then kicked the victim as he fell to the ground. Foster allegedly culminated his attack by sodomizing the victim with a tree branch, before stealing the victim's cellphone, running away and selling it to someone else. Doctors had to remove a 7-inch, 1/2" diameter piece of branch from the victim.

The victim in the attack was beaten so badly police had to take fingerprints to identify him. He now is at Northwestern Memorial Hospital intubated with severe head trauma, brain swelling, a broken nose and eye fractures. Foster was tracked down at the Pacific Garden Mission on Canal Street, where he admitted blood on his clothes was from the victim.