Updated: Glenbard West Student Charged with Sexual Assault

A Glenbard student was arrested on his way to school on Tuesday, Rolling Meadows police said.

Demarco Whitley Jr., 18, of the 400 block of Saint Moritz Dr. in Glen Ellyn was arrested and charged with criminal sexual assault. A spokeswoman for the Cook County State's Attorneys office said that Whitley and fellow student and football player Pierre Washington-Steel are both named as offenders in the sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl on Jan. 29, 2010. An hour later  Whitley and Washington-Steel were involved in a fatal accident when the car they were driving crashed into a utility pole. Whitley was seriously injured in the accident and Washington-Steel died about a week later from injuries sustained in the crash.

According to a press release from the Rolling Meadows Police Department, the assault occurred in a church parking lot in Rolling Meadows. Whitley and Washington-Steel allegedly picked the girl up and drove her to the parking lot and forced her to have sex with them in their car. They then dropped her off at a friend’s house about an hour before the accident. Police said that the victim knew one of the offenders from school.

A spokeswoman for the Cook County State's Attorneys office confirmed police recovered a used condom in the parking lot and the victim also supplied police with a pair of nylons ripped during the assault. Police said they used those to identify Whitley as a suspect after DNA tests came back.

Rolling Meadows police Cmdr. William Arneson told the Chicago Tribune that injuries sustained by Whitley during the car accident kept them from moving forward with the arrest and that the lab tests took nearly a year to get back.

Peg Mannion, spokeswoman for Glenbard Distrcit 87, declined to comment today and told Patch that the school will not be releasing a statement to media, or to students.

“This is fully a police matter,” Mannion said.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported back in 2007 that Washington-Steel was expelled from Loyola Academy in Wilmette after he took topless photos of a female student and distributed them without her consent.

Washington-Steel’s death last year made headlines and saw an outpouring of support from the school and community. A Facebook group that was started after the accident called, This is for Pierre and Demarco, currently has over 4,000 members.

Bail was set at $50,000 on Tuesday for Whitley and his next hearing date is scheduled for March 3 in Rolling Meadows, according to the Cook County State's Attorneys office. Whitley faces four to 15 years jail time if convicted.

"He could face additonal charges," said Tandra Simonton, spokeswoman for the Cook County State's Attorneys.