LA GRANGE, IL – More than 15 months later, La Grange police have revealed little about the incident that left a student severely injured outside Lyons Township High School’s North Campus.
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The attack occurred about an hour after school May 1 outside the school’s Exit 7. The student was taken to the hospital.
Nine days later, La Grange police said they arrested a juvenile on charges of attempted first-degree murder and aggravated battery involving great bodily harm.
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Police took the unusual step of declining to reveal the juvenile’s age, gender, hometown or whether the juvenile was a student. Typically, police departments withhold a juvenile’s name, but release the other information.
Authorities also did not explain the motivation behind the incident.
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A few days after the attack, police announced they arrested James Hernandez, 18, of Brookfield, with battery. He was identified as a student.
At Monday’s Village Board meeting, Mary O’Dowd, a 1980 Lyons Township graduate and now a Darien resident, asked officials for more information on the incident.
“Was this a gang-related incident? Was the 18-year-old student who was charged with battery suspended? Was the 18-year-old student who was charged with battery suspended?” O’Dowd asked. “And most importantly, what is the status of the student who was nearly murdered?”
The village’s attorney, Ben Schuster, said La Grange was constrained by the state’s Juvenile Court Act, which bars the release of juvenile suspects’ records. He acknowledged the public’s frustration.
“Records involving juvenile offenders are effectively sealed,” he said. “It can be a criminal act to give out that information. We have to comply with the act. It is not at our discretion to provide records when we get a request.”
He did not say why the village could not disclose information about an incident without releasing a juvenile’s identity or records.
Other towns release more information about incidents involving juveniles. Last fall, Elmhurst issued a news release about a youth who police said was involved in the burglaries of a garage and a car in a local neighborhood.
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