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Three men were arrested Friday in Long Grove for the alleged beating and robbing of a woman in January, according to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

In a statement released Monday, sheriff’s officials report Jovanni Mora, 21; Neslye Y. Palacios-Flores, 23; and Juan Colon, 24, all of Waukegan, were held in Lake County jail on charges of aggravated battery, unlawful restraint and robbery. Bail was set at $100,000 for Mora, $50,000 for Palacios-Flores and $125,000 for Colon.

Juan A. Colon, 24, of the 400 block of South Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, Waukegan.
Juan A. Colon, 24, of the 400 block of South Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, Waukegan.

According to the statement, on Friday, Lake County sheriff’s deputies and members of the U.S. Marshals Service Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force discovered the three were living together in the 400 block of South Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue in Waukegan.

After deputies knocked on the apartment door, the three could be heard inside talking about how to escape, the statement added. One attempted to flee out of a first-story window, but retreated back inside. Authorities forced their way into the apartment and arrested all three suspects. Authorities described Mora and Colon as “documented street gang members.”

Jovanni Mora, 21, of the 400 block of South Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, Waukegan.
Jovanni Mora, 21, of the 400 block of South Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, Waukegan.

A 15-year-old boy was also inside who was arrested on an unrelated juvenile warrant, and sent to the Hulse Juvenile Justice Facility near Vernon Hills.

The arrests stem from an incident on Jan. 25, when sheriff’s deputies received a report from an 18-year-old woman who had been battered and robbed. Authorities said the woman was attending a party in a hotel in Mundelein with Colon, Mora and Palacios-Flores, and they devised a plan to rob her as they took her home to Arlington Heights.

Neslye Y. Palacios-Flores, 23, of the 400 block of South Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, Waukegan.
Neslye Y. Palacios-Flores, 23, of the 400 block of South Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, Waukegan.

“The three pulled the car over in a secluded area near Arlington Heights Road and Checker Road in Long Grove,” a release states. The woman was taken out of the car, “punched and kicked in the head and body,” and robbed.

Authorities say the three suspects put her back in the car before running it into a ditch. After two of the men got out to push the car out, the woman ran away and flagged down a passing driver, and later sought medical treatment.

Grant Morgan is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.