Ryan Storm, 20, of Palatine.

Editor’s note: This story contains graphic details. Reader discretion is advised.

A Palatine man, who is facing decades in prison, has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping a woman, tying her up and repeatedly sexually assaulting her inside a Lake Barrington warehouse.

Ryan Storm, 20, of the 500 block of West Gilbert Road in Palatine, was initially charged with three counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, criminal sexual assault, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated battery by strangulation, aggravated criminal sexual abuse and unlawful restraint.

On June 9, a grand jury indicted Storm on seven additional counts of aggravated sexual assault assault, three additional counts of aggravated kidnapping and one count of aggravated domestic battery.

Storm’s defense attorney, Dan Hodgkinson, formally entered not guilty pleas before Lake County Circuit Judge Daniel Shanes Wednesday morning.

Hodgkinson, a private attorney, told Shanes he had been retained in place of the Lake County Public Defender’s Office.

Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said veteran Assistant State’s Attorney Mary Stanton is prosecuting the case.

“We are making sure that every appropriate resource we have in terms of personnel, computer technology, and time are devoted to this case. We will ensure that the victim receives justice in this difficult matter,” Rinehart said.

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Aggravated criminal sexual assault and aggravated kidnapping are Class X felonies, carrying a mandatory sentencing range on conviction of between six and 30 years in prison.

Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Tara Ferrari said during a May 20 bond hearing that Storm and the victim, a 20-year-old woman, used to be in a dating relationship.

The two met up in a parking lot in Palatine on May 18 where they talked for approximately a half-hour.

As the victim attempted to leave in her vehicle, Storm allegedly dragged her to his car and strangled her before pushing her into the front passenger seat of his vehicle.

Storm pushed the victim’s head into the dashboard and pushed her onto the floor of the front passenger seat, Ferrari said.

The woman tried grabbing the steering wheel of Storm’s car and he then allegedly hit her and strangled her again, this time causing her to lose consciousness, Ferrari said.

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The victim regained consciousness inside what she described as a warehouse, which was the garage of a business in the 28000 block of West Commercial Avenue in Lake Barrington.

Police investigate a kidnapping and sexual assault of a woman at a business on Commercial Avenue in Lake Barrington on May 19, 2021. | Photo: North Shore Updates.

Ferrari said that the woman’s clothes had been cut off with a box cutter and Storm hit the woman in her buttocks with a metal object.

Storm then urinated on the victim and digitally penetrated her multiple times, Ferrari said during the hearing.

At one point, Storm allegedly penetrated the woman using a beer bottle, Ferrari said. He then tied up her hands and hung her to a forklift.

Storm threatened to snap the woman’s neck if she screamed, Ferrari said.

The Lake County Sheriff’s Office responded to the warehouse around 2 a.m. on May 19 after receiving a 911 call from a person who walked in on the assault taking place.

Lake County Sheriff Spokesman Lt. Christopher Covelli said that a person, who knew Storm, went to the business to check on the man after receiving a “strange call” from him.

When the person went inside the business, which is Storm’s workplace, they discovered the victim nude and bound to the forklift.

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Storm fled out a back door and the person called 911. The victim was transported to an area hospital by ambulance, Covelli said.

Sheriff’s deputies and canines from the Lake and McHenry County sheriff’s offices spent several hours searching for Storm.

Information was developed around 8 a.m. May 19 indicating Storm was in Fox River Grove attempting to avoid apprehension, Covelli said.

Members of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, McHenry County Sheriff’s Office, Fox River Grove Police, Cary Police, Barrington Police, and Barrington Hills Police checked Ski Hill Road where the man had been spotted.

A Fox River Grove police officer observed Storm running in the 900 block of Ski Hill Road. The officer pursued the man on foot and subsequently took him into custody.

Storm remains held in the Lake County Jail on a $3 million bond. He is scheduled to appear in court on August 6.