Punch To Officer's Groin Leads To Felony Battery Charge

ELGIN (CBS) -- A man who allegedly punched a police officer in the groin was charged with a felony count of aggravated battery.

Alex S. Barrera, 26, of the Lexington Inn hotel in Elgin, is accused of punching an officer in the groin while being booked for additional felony counts of disorderly conduct for making a false report, and criminal damage to property.

Officers said that at 12:20 a.m. Monday they found Barrera picking up and smashing landscape pavers in Carleton Rogers Park at 51 N. Spring St.

He then allegedly told the officers that two men across the street had threatened him with a gun, but the officers said they determined that was not true, and that he was simply mad because the men had been talking to a woman inside a nearby nightclub earlier in the evening.

In bond court Monday, prosecutors told the judge that Barrera had served time in prison following an April 2010 incident in another bond court, in which he had told Kane County Judge Bruce Lester he would "pop your (expletive) ass" during a bond call appearance on a theft charge.

Bail on the new charges was set at $50,000 and he was assigned a Nov. 2 court date.

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