A woman, who officials called a “public menace for decades,” walked into a restaurant in North Chicago and repeatedly punched a random child in the head in front of the victim’s mother for no reason.
Myra V. Anderson, 40, of North Chicago, was charged with one count of aggravated battery of a child under 13 causing bodily harm, a Class 3 felony, and one count of aggravated battery in a public place, a Class 3 felony.
The North Chicago Police Department responded on March 26 to Teresita Restaurant, 625 10th Street in North Chicago, for a report of a battery in progress.
Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Patrick Windmoeller said Anderson entered the restaurant and started punching a 12-year-old girl in the head three times and also struck her in the back.
The girl’s mother called 911 to report that an unknown person was attacking her child.
A fellow patron saw Anderson striking the victim with no provocation, Windmoeller said. Officers saw redness on the child’s neck.
Officers located and arrested Anderson and asked her why she attacked the child and she responded, “I just got out.”
Windmoeller said Anderson has an “unbroken trend” of being a “public menace for decades” based on her criminal history.
“She has been committing random violent offenses repeatedly and has demonstrated a complete unwillingness to do the very basic requirement of even deigning to appear in Court,” the prosecutor said. “Her record of Failures to Appear is consistent and unbroken.”
Anderson was on pre-trial release in a 2025 misdemeanor case but had her release revoked by a judge after failing to appear in court three times and then getting arrested for a felony case.
The Lake County Jail mistakenly released her and then she was arrested again for a fourth failure to appear in court.
She was released again after pleading guilty in one of the cases on March 5 and receiving a 180-day term in the Lake County Jail. She received credit for 68 days already served and day-for-day credit on the sentence.
“She has demonstrated repeatedly her inability to abide court orders by her history of Judgments of Forfeiture, Judgments of Conviction, Failures to Appear, Petitions to Revoke, revoked and custodial sentences,” Windmoeller said.
“She has been at liberty, or ‘out’ in the words of the Defendant, for less than a month and has now committed another violent offense. There are quite clearly no conditions or combinations of conditions that will prevent her willful flight from prosecution. She must be detained,” the prosecutor added.
A public defender for Anderson argued for her release while also saying she has a long history of fitness issues and has missed court due to mental health issues.
Lake County Judge Ari Fisz granted a petition to detain Anderson pending trial after agreeing with prosecutors that she poses a willful flight risk. The charges against her are not detainable under the SAFE-T Act on the basis that she poses a danger to others.
Anderson remains held in the Lake County Jail and is scheduled to appear in court again on June 3 for a case management conference.