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player ready...A Little Village man has been charged with sexually assaulting a 7-year-old boy in a Chinese restaurant washroom a year ago, authorities said.
David Vega, 45, attacked the boy at the Great China Buffet about 5 p.m. on April 26, 2014, according to court and police records. Vega, who was arrested in Edwardsville on Thursday, was ordered held in lieu of $500,000 bail on charges of predatory criminal sexual assault in a hearing before Cook County Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil midday Friday.
The boy was with his family at the restaurant when he went to the restroom alone, and Vega followed him, assistant state’s attorney Akash Vyas said. Vega started speaking Spanish to the boy, and told the boy to close his eyes, prosecutors said.
The boy did, and Vega pulled the boy’s pants and underwear, and touched him sexually, prosecutors said.
After the attack, the boy left the washroom and went back to the family table and the boy saw Vega flee in a small green car, according to prosecutors and police.
When the boy got home with his family, he told his parents what had happened, and the family went back to the restaurant—where other family members were still eating—but couldn’t find Vega, and police were called, prosecutors said.
The boy was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where DNA evidence was collected, and the boy was interviewed by investigators. The attacker had distinctive tattoos–including one of a knife with two lines underneath and the word “que,” along with a tattoo of an animal that police said might be a dog—and detectives released a sketch of the attacker a few days after the assault.
In March, Illinois State Police found a DNA match on the evidence collected from the boy, and police started looking for Vega, prosecutors said. Police obtained a warrant for his arrest April 3, and he was arrested Thursday downstate, prosecutors said.
Vega, of the 2600 block of West Cermak, has previously been convicted in 2010 of attempted assault in Queens, New York, and convicted of vandalism in Sacramento, Calif., in 2007. He had to provide a DNA sample in connection with the California conviction, and it was that DNA profile which matched the one analyzed by state police, prosecutors said.
Vega’s public defender said he has lived in Chicago for the last five years.
Tribune reporter Steve Schmadeke contributed.