Countryside man charged with battery after touching 13-year-old girl

COUNTRYSIDE (STMW) - A 27-year-old west suburban man was charged with battery after he touched a 13-year-old girl outside of a library in west suburban Riverside.

Hector S. Guerra-Gallardo, of the 5300 block of South Catherine Avenue in Countryside, was charged with one misdemeanor count of battery, according to a statement from Riverside police.

At 6:16 p.m. Saturday, officers encountered Guerra-Gallardo outside of the Riverside Public Library at 1 Burling Rd. The officers could smell alcohol on Guerra-Gallardo’s breath and had to help him stand up, according to the statement.

He told the officers that he had taken a train from Chicago but got off at the wrong stop and his phone died, according to the statement.

Guerra-Gallardo then walked up to three girls sitting outside the lbirary — one 13-year-old from Brookfield and two 12-year-olds from Riverside — and asked to borrow a phone, which the 13-year-old girl gave him. When he returned the phone, Guerra-Gallardo reached towards the girl and “brushed his hand against her thigh” and said “I love you,” according to the statement.

At the police station, the girl’s parents asked to sign a complaint against Guerra-Gallardo for unlawfully touching their daughter, according to the statement.