L.A. Woman’s Fall Probed in Chicago

CHICAGO â€”  A young Los Angeles woman was at the center of a continuing Chicago police investigation Wednesday after she plunged from one of the last remaining high rises in the city’s notorious Robert Taylor Homes project a day after a trespassing arrest.

The woman remained hospitalized in critical condition Wednesday night, said Monique Bond, director of news affairs for the Chicago Police Department.

The injured woman’s name was not released. She had a California driver’s license on her when she was found Monday night in the courtyard of the grim compound, once the nation’s largest public housing project, on Chicago’s South Side. The woman was partly undressed, Bond said.

“We’re still trying to piece things together right now,� Bond said Wednesday night, adding that police had been trying to retrace the steps that led the woman to the mostly demolished housing project just off the Dan Ryan Expressway.

Bond said police had identified a man with gang connections who reportedly was last seen with the woman and were looking for him Wednesday night.

Police Supt. Philip Cline told the Chicago Tribune that an internal affairs investigation was underway into the police handling of the case.

Internal affairs “is looking into allegations that the family called and told officers that she did have a mental condition, and we’re looking to see if officers followed proper procedures in that case,� Cline said.

A source who was not authorized to speak about the case told the Tribune that the woman’s parents had telephoned police while she was in custody and told them she had bipolar disorder and was off her medication.

Police said they had arrested the woman Sunday afternoon at a train platform near Midway Airport for allegedly trespassing. Bond said she was behaving erratically.

Officers transported the woman to the nearest police station, then took her about seven or eight miles away to the department’s only station with an all-female holding cell, Bond said.

About 6:30 p.m. Monday, the woman was released on her own recognizance.

“She was acting very erratically,� said Bond. “It’s unclear whether she had just gotten off a flight.... And we’re still trying to determine exactly how she got to where she ended up.�

About 11 p.m., Bond said, a 911 call reported a woman lying slumped in the courtyard. Police assigned to the housing project -- which, except for one building, is vacant, and is frequented by vagrants -- responded, finding the woman in the courtyard.

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Tribune staff writer David Heinzmann and Times staff writer Nancy Wride contributed to this report.