Oak Forest attorney accused of sexual attack
BY CASEY TONER ctoner@southtownstar.com September 12, 2011 11:04PM
Updated: November 9, 2011 4:10PM
An arrest warrant has been issued for an Oak Forest attorney who allegedly handcuffed and sexually assaulted a woman last week at his home.
Cook County Circuit Court Judge Joan M. O’Brien approved the aggravated sexual abuse warrant for David A. Baitman, 59, of 14868 Landings Lane, Oak Forest, and set his bail at $300,000.
Police Chief Greg Anderson said Baitman, the Oak Forest hearing officer and a retired Cook County assistant public defender, is in the psychiatric ward at Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
Police said Baitman was helping a 51-year-old woman move out of his home on Sept. 5 when he began kissing her and when she resisted, he threw her on the bed and handcuffed her.
He then cut off her clothing with a scissors, gagged and blindfolded her and sexually assaulted her, according to police.
They said Baitman then dragged the victim by her hair into a bedroom closet and left her there all night, occasionally checking on her and talking with her, telling her that he had a handgun.
The woman talked Baitman into calling a relative, a 28-year-old Frankfort woman, at 6:45 a.m. the next day, police said. They said the relative arrived about 45 minutes later and drove Baitman and the woman to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was admitted to the psychiatric ward, where he remains.
Anderson said police collected evidence from the home and that Baitman had no prior history of domestic abuse.
Baitman was an Oak Forest police and fire commissioner from 1995 to 1997. He started working as the village’s hearing officer, an appointed position, in 2006. City Clerk Scott Burkhardt said the city will replace Baitman as hearing officer.
