Injured Child, 2, At Loyola, Plainfield Defendant Wins Jail Release

JOLIET — An out-of-town private criminal defense lawyer defeated prosecutors at the Will County State's Attorney's Office as Will County Judge Derek Ewanic ruled in favor of pretrial release for Plainfield 21-year-old Jordan Padilla.

Padilla faces a Class X felony of aggravated battery causing serious bodily injury in connection with head trauma suffered by his girlfriend's 2-year-old child. The little girl is now recovering at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood.

Joliet Patch was the only news media outlet in the Will County Courtroom 202 of Judge Ewanic for Monday afternoon's pretrial detention hearing for Padilla, a former Plainfield East football and basketball player, according to his private defense lawyer Boris Djulabic of Orland Park.

"The victim's condition is improving," the defense attorney told Judge Ewanic at Monday's pretrial detention hearing, which went in his client's favor.

About 15 spectators were seated in the courtroom gallery, and Padilla's lawyer told the judge that the spectators included family members of both Padilla and the injured child's family and that both families were supporting Padilla.

Padilla has been in a two-year romantic relationship with the injured child's mother, and is not the father of the injured child, the defense attorney noted.

Padilla has no criminal history, and maintains a steady job in Plainfield after previously attending Southern Illinois University, Djulabic said.

The Will County Sheriff's Office arrested Padilla on Saturday, and he has remained at the Will County Jail.

"This is quite a shock to everyone ... This is the first serious contact he's had with law enforcement. He maintains this was accidental conduct," Djulabic told the judge. "He comes from a good family. He's employed. He's not a flight risk. He does not live with the victim or the victim's mother.

"He lives with his mother and father and three other siblings and has a two-year loving relationship with the victim's mother," the Orland Park lawyer suggested.

Assistant Will County State's Attorney Rose Aviles argued that Padilla should remain in the Will County Jail pursuant to the Illinois SAFE-T-Act.

Aviles said the little girl was found unconscious after being with Padilla while the mother was eating food elsewhere in her house.

Will County Sheriff's deputies and a Lockport Township ambulance responded around 6:50 p.m.

Padilla gave at least three different versions of what happened, according to the prosecutor.

In one version, the child fell and injured her eye. In a second version, Padilla maintained he dropped his phone on the little girl's eye. Eventually, during further questioning from sheriff's investigators, Padilla confessed to intentionally striking the child in her head with his elbow, the prosecutor said.

"He said he elbowed her (after) the child took his phone," Aviles told the judge.

The prosecutor said the little girl, only identified in court by her initials of "S.M." suffered a mild skull fracture, and is currently being evaluated for surgery.

"Clearly, he has a short (temper)," Aviles said.

Padilla's lawyer contended that his client has cooperated throughout the investigation with paramedics and sheriff's investigators.

Djalabic insisted that his client is a "people pleaser" that the sheriff's investigators pressured him to change his statement of what had happened.

In ruling in favor of Padilla, Judge Ewanic announced the following conditions will be imposed upon the Plainfield defendant's release from the Will County Jail:

• No contact with S.M., the 2-year-old hospitalized victim.
• No contact with the victim's house in the 21500 block of Plainifeld's Franklin Circle.
• No contact with anyone under the age of 18 unless supervised by an adult.
• Electronic monitoring and house arrest from 7:15 p.m. to 7:15 a.m., this way, Padilla can continue to go to work.

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