Oak Park home invader held on $250,000 bond

By Bill Dwyer For Chronicle Media

Cook 120215 Oak Park abduction CROP copyDefense attorney says he’ll seek a plea deal

Sherman Henderson, the Lyons resident accused of an Oak Park home invasion, was ordered jailed in lieu of $250,000 bond Wednesday afternoon.

At that same hearing, his attorney stated that he hoped to negotiate a plea deal with the state.

Henderson was represented by Oak Park attorney Thomas Benno, who told Judge James Gavin that while Henderson “made a lot of money” working for Burlington Northern Railroad (as a conductor), his family did not have $25,000 cash to bond him out, and that Henderson had two children to support and care for.

Benno asked for the bond to be set at $100,000. But when the state responded that Henderson had several prior convictions, including a 2004 attempted obstruction of police and a 2001 domestic battery as a juvenile, and that his case would likely go to a grand jury for an indictment and possible additional charges, the judge denied Benno’s request.

Henderson’s next court date is Dec. 4.

An assistant state’s attorney told the judge that Lindsay Bowman and a friend were watching television in a back living room when there was a knocking on the rear door that became “louder and more aggressive.”

The friend and Bowman both ran to the front door as the rear door was kicked in. The friend escaped, but Bowman fell, cutting her finger.

“He caught her, threw her over his shoulder and carried her out of the house,” the state’s attorney said. He said a neighbor witnessed a man carrying a woman across his shoulder to a car.

“He then threw her into the car, across the driver’s seat and into the passenger’s seat.”

He said responding police observed blood on the rear door and the deck. After reportedly fleeing from police “at a high rate of speed,” Henderson then “brought the victim to a Lyons apartment.”

An acquaintance, who Benno said knew both Henderson and Bowman, took Bowman to Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park the next morning.

Benno said that while it looked bad, his client was gainfully employed and helping his ex-wife raise two children, who needed him.

“He needs to get back to work,” he told Gavin. “I think we can enter a plea bargain with the state.”

After the hearing, Benno spoke with the press. He said he was concerned Monday that things would get out of control after he heard that there was an “all points bulletin” out on Henderson.

He also disputed the contention that police have a witness who saw Henderson carry Bowman from the house.

“I know the guy,” Benno said, saying he was introduced through a church source, and that he previously helped him work out child support payments.

Benno acknowledged Henderson’s actions looked bad, but that they were not as bad as it looks. He said Henderson and Bowman had been dating for two years.

“This was a relationship that broke up and he tried to win her back,” he said. “He got upset, he broke the glass, he went in the house. (But) he didn’t beat anybody up.”

“What happened here is that the truth is going to set him free,” Benno said, while immediately acknowledging that Henderson is likely to go to prison.

“If Sherman hadn’t gone there, none of this would have happened,” Benno said. “He’s going to tell the truth and he’s going to take his punishment. The home invasion charge, I think that’s fair.”

But not kidnapping.

“I don’t think it was kidnapping per se,” he said. “She wasn’t held against her will.” He said Henderson merely “convinced Lindsay to go with him,” telling her, “you gotta come with me so we can talk this through.”

Benno said Henderson spent the night at the Lyons’ apartment talking with Bowman in the company of two other friends. Benno said Bowman was “free to leave at any time,” and that in the morning she did just that after her friend insisted she let her take her to the hospital.

“Our intention is to plead this out. It is what it is,” Benno said. We can work it all out. Is he going to walk? No.”

Benno also suggested that Henderson wasn’t the person driving the Dodge Magnum that fled from police immediately after the home invasion.

“We don’t know. The police don’t know,” he said. “I have no idea who was driving that car.”