La Salle man accused of sexually assaulting child now charged with trying to flee

A La Salle man accused of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old was granted home confinement Tuesday. Three days later, he was charged with cutting off his ankle bracelet and trying to flee.

Phillip A. Weeks, 45, was charged Friday in La Salle County Circuit Court with felony escape. He was apprehended shortly before noon the same day.

Details still were emerging Friday, but La Salle police issued a midday news release reporting that Weeks “had cut off his ankle monitoring device” and then was found in Mendota “in the immediate area of the Amtrak train station.”

At noon Friday, Weeks was awaiting transport to the La Salle County Jail for a pending detention hearing on his new charge. Escape is a Class 3 felony carrying a possible prison sentence of two to five years.

The most serious charge against Weeks remains predatory criminal sexual assault, a Class X felony carrying up to 60 years in prison. He was charged after an October 2023 investigation into sexual contact with a girl who was 10 years old at the time.

Chief Judge H. Chris Ryan Jr. granted Weeks’ request for pretrial release and home confinement at a Peru residence during a Tuesday detention hearing. Prosecutors argued in seeking his detention that Weeks is ineligible for probation, and lab tests linked Weeks forensically to the girl’s assault.

Weeks had been out of the jail’s custody less than 72 hours when he was accused of cutting the bracelet and leaving Peru.

In the news release, La Salle Police Chief Mike Smudzinski blasted the Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today Act, or SAFE-T Act, which eliminated cash bail and gave all criminal defendants a presumption of pretrial release.

“The Illinois SAFE-T Act has been one of the most damaging things in society to all law-abiding citizens while handcuffing law enforcement officers and prosecutors,” Smudzinski said.

Under the SAFE-T Act, a defendant will undergo a detention hearing if prosecutors file a petition seeking to deny their release from jail. At the detention hearing, a judge must first determine whether the defendant is charged with an offense eligible for detention under the law, and then decide whether they pose a flight risk or a risk to another person or the community. If there is a risk, the judge must consider whether any conditions can be required – such as ankle monitoring – that could mitigate that risk while still allowing the defendant to be released.

Weeks remains set for trial Jan. 6, with a Dec. 27 hearing for motions.