Cops: Man Who Exposed Himself To Children Held

CHICAGO (STMW) - A West Side man is expected in court Saturday, charged with sexual exploitation of a child and public indecency, police said.

The suspect, William Grice, was arrested Thursday after allegedly exposing himself in the emergency room of University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago in front of three children and their mother. He was charged with misdemeanor public indecency for the Thursday hospital incident, police said.

But Grice, 52, of Jackson and Damen, was expected in court Saturday on a felony sexual exploitation of a child charge for an incident that occurred last month when he allegedly exposed himself in view of a little girl and her mother on the Near West Side on July 15.

Grice was arrested Thursday in the 900 block of South Wood Street by University of Illinois police after he allegedly exposed himself to three children and their mother in the emergency room of the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago Hospital, at 1740 W. Taylor St., police said.

He was walking away from the hospital when the university police picked him up and he was subsequently charged, police said.

In the July incident, Grice fled the scene after allegedly exposing himself in view of a young girl outside a town home complex in the Little Italy neighborhood on the Near West Side.

It happened about 8:50 a.m. in the 1300 block of West Westgate Terrace, according to police News Affairs Officer Laura Kubiak.

A woman was inside her home with her juvenile daughter and talking on a telephone, when it happened. As they looked out a window, they saw a man who appeared to be in his 50s exposing himself, according to Kubiak.

The suspect, who was outside in a rear area, fled afterwards. A police officer on the scene said members of the victims' family told police the suspect was wearing a baseball hat backwards, a white T-shirt, and was Africa-American.

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