A 61-year-old Chicago man and his 37-year-old son are facing attempted first-degree murder charges after allegedly chasing down a driver at a red light in Uptown, smashing his window, and beating him with a metal motorcycle foot peg until he needed more than 20 stitches to close a gash in his forehead.
Kenneth Menard and his son, Nicholas Menard, are each charged with attempted first-degree murder, vehicular invasion, and multiple counts of aggravated battery in connection with the August 16 attack on a 46-year-old driver during evening rush hour, according to CWB Chicago. The victim had stopped for a red light at Clarendon Avenue and Irving Park Road around 5:35 p.m. that day.
Nicholas Menard was riding a green 2003 Kawasaki sport bike and Kenneth Menard a black 2018 Harley-Davidson when the two allegedly began aggressively revving their engines at the victim, per the detention filing described in the same report. The pair then allegedly followed the driver to a second red light at Montrose, with Nicholas approaching from the passenger side of the vehicle and Kenneth from the driver's side.
Window Shattered, Foot Peg Used as a Weapon
Nicholas Menard allegedly shattered the vehicle's passenger window, the outlet's report states. The victim then opened the driver's door and tried to push Kenneth Menard away. Nicholas allegedly struck the victim in the head with a metal motorcycle foot peg, a weapon police later recovered at the scene. The blow left the victim temporarily blind, and he told investigators he believed his skull had been fractured; he also lost his hearing aids in the attack.
Even while yelling for help, the victim managed to photograph both men, and bystanders recorded the confrontation on their phones. Kenneth Menard allegedly grabbed the victim's phone and stuffed it in his back pocket, but the victim got it back before the two men fled the scene on their motorcycles. Witnesses helped the injured driver, who was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, a 408-bed hospital in Lakeview that operates one of only five Level I Trauma Centers in Chicago, according to Advocate Health. There he received between 20 and 25 stitches to close a 6-centimeter forehead laceration.
Judges Cite “Brazen” Attack in Detention Orders
Judge Ankur Srivastava ordered Kenneth Menard detained, calling the alleged attack “brazen” and noting it happened in public with multiple witnesses openly recording it, per the same report. The judge's detention order also cited Kenneth Menard's background of multiple violent arrests, including a prior aggravated battery case involving great bodily harm that was reduced to misdemeanor battery. Judge James Murphy III separately ordered Nicholas Menard detained.of Cook County's felony court.
Both detention rulings flow from Illinois' 2023 elimination of cash bail under the Pretrial Fairness Act, which allows pretrial detention when prosecutors prove by clear and convincing evidence that a defendant poses a present threat to a specific individual or the community, or is a flight risk, and that no release conditions can alleviate the threat, according to the Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts. Under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 604(h), a defendant ordered held pretrial may file an expedited appeal, but must first present a motion for relief to the trial court, per the Illinois State Bar Association.
Son Was Already Out on Felony Release
Nicholas Menard was on felony pretrial release for burglary at the time of the alleged August 16 attack. That earlier case stemmed from an April 17 surveillance operation CPD officers were running in the 3700 block of North Halsted Street after a surge in airbag thefts, during which officers reported seeing Nicholas Menard break the rear passenger-side window of a Honda SUV with his left elbow, reach inside, and try to remove items before he was arrested. He allegedly told officers he broke the window to take a black Columbia jacket. Nicholas Menard worked for his family's Lakeview-based locksmith company, the outlet's report notes.
The son's case makes him the 11th person accused of killing or attempting to kill someone in Chicago this year while awaiting trial on a separate felony case, per the same account. The tracking is part of an ongoing series the outlet launched in November 2019 after Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans publicly stated that “we haven't had any horrible incidents occur” under the county's bond reform initiative.
Charges Filed in a Fraction of Violent Cases
The attempted murder charges against both men are notable given how rarely such cases are filed. City data shows Chicago police have brought charges in only 33% of murder cases and fewer than 5% of non-fatal shooting cases reported since 2017, and the outlet notes the true number of murders and shootings committed by people awaiting felony trials is likely higher than what its tracking series has captured.
If convicted of attempted first-degree murder, each man could face the felony's mandatory sentence of 6 to 30 years under Illinois law, according to the Law Offices of Phil Haddad. Both men are also charged with vehicular invasion. Aggravated battery charges in Illinois can range from a Class 3 felony up to a Class X felony carrying up to 30 years, depending on factors like great bodily harm or the use of a dangerous weapon, according to the Luisi Legal Group.
The case is one of several road rage incidents that have drawn scrutiny across the Chicago area in recent months, including a Gary man's I-94 ramp shooting charges last month.
