A northwest suburban man accused of five sexual attacks says he was either at work, at a concert or asleep at home during four of the incidents.
Glenn Hernet, a 27-year-old elevator construction worker, admits to the fifth incident, but says the victim was ”willing.”
”I`m just a scapegoat for every case in the northwest suburbs,” said Hernet, who is charged with nearly 20 felonies in connection with a month-long spree of attacks on women.
Since his Aug. 21 arrest, Hernet has been held on $1.2 million bond in Cook County Jail, but has repeatedly proclaimed his innocence in conversations with his family, coworkers and the media.
”They`ve got the wrong guy except for Woodfield Mall, and I`ve already given the police a statement on that one,” Hernet said.
”I had a few drinks in Arlington Heights. I was hammered when I got in my car. I went down Golf Road and I saw a van. I thought it was familiar. . . . I thought I recognized it, so I parked. There was a woman getting in. Then we were in the van. She undid her top and pulled down her nylons. She just wanted to have sex.
”Then two people got in the car next door. The woman screamed, `Get the police,` and I got out of there. I left my shoe. I ran back for it, but she started to scream again.”
A sneaker was left behind as the woman`s attacker fled to his late-model Pontiac Fiero and drove away at about 5:30 p.m. Aug. 20. Witnesses described the car to Schaumburg police, and within hours, police were at Hernet`s Elk Grove Village residence, where they were told he was not home.
They returned at 2 a.m. for a third time with a search warrant and found Hernet hiding in the attic. A search of his home revealed a matching sneaker and other physical evidence being examined by crime technicians.
Shortly after his arrest, Hernet gave a statement to police admitting his involvement in the Woodfield incident. ”What happened between me and that woman was not a sexual attack,” Hernet said. ”I don`t know why I did it. I`m happily married.”
Though he has admitted his involvement, the 44-year-old victim was unable to pick him out of a line-up. But four other women who have been attacked in the last month by a man matching Hernet`s description identified him in a series of line-ups held at the Schaumburg Police Department within hours of his arrest.
In addition to the Woodfield attack, Hernet is charged with the sexual assault of a 24-year Streamwood woman at about noon on July 21; the unlawful restraint and robbery of a Palatine woman in her 20s on Aug. 4; the sexual attack of a woman in her 20s in Park Ridge on Aug. 6; and the sexual assault of a 38-year-old woman in Palatine Township on Aug. 14.
”I was at work on July 21 and on the other day when it happened during the daytime,” Hernet said. ”My time sheets will show it. I got to work at 7 in the morning and get off at 3:30.”
Hernet, a member of the International Union of Elevator Constructors, is employed by Westinghouse. For most of the summer, he said he and his apprentice helper had worked at a renovation project at North Park College installing an elevator. Officials at Westinghouse and the union refused to divulge Hernet`s schedule.
As for the Aug. 4 and Aug. 6 attacks, Hernet said he and his wife may have been at a concert at Poplar Creek Music Theatre in Hoffman Estates.
”We go to concerts a lot,” he said. ”If I wasn`t at concert, I was home with my wife or in bed. We got to bed around 9 p.m.”
Police said both attacks occurred before 9 p.m.
Hernet also called the line-ups ”a joke. I hadn`t slept or shaved and everybody else was clean and nicely shaven. My hair was a mess. I would have convicted myself.”
Detectives in Schaumburg, Palatine and Streamwood said they are continuing to investigate the cases. ”Officially, Hernet hasn`t told us anything about alibis,” said Palatine Detective Cmdr. Jack McGregor.
