Suburban man running for Congress was convicted 27 years ago of sexually assaulting a woman

A Lemont man running to be the Republican nominee in the heavily Democratic 1st Congressional District spent nearly six years in prison after being convicted 27 years ago of sexually assaulting a woman following the South Side Irish Parade, records show.

Eric Carlson, 54, was found guilty in 1995 of criminal sexual assault. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison and served about half that time, according to court and Illinois prison records. Carlson is one of four candidates in the June 28 primary seeking the GOP nomination to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush.

According to court records in his unsuccessful appeal of his conviction, Carlson met a woman at a bar in 1994 near the South Side Irish Parade route on the day of the parade.

The woman testified she left the bar with Carlson and agreed to accompany him in his car to another bar, but instead he pulled the car around a street corner and assaulted her as she begged him to stop, according to court records in the case.

In his 1996 appeal, Carlson testified the sex was consensual, according to court records.

Asked last week whether the sexual assault conviction would make it difficult for him to represent residents of the district, which stretches from the South Loop to the edge of Kankakee County, Carlson said he is better suited than other candidates to represent citizens in Washington, D.C., “because I know the ins and outs of the system.”

“I’m the only one who has lived all of this stuff,” he said.

The Tribune is not identifying the woman because it is the newspaper’s policy not to name individuals who have been sexually assaulted.

It is legal for candidates with felony convictions to run for and hold seats in Congress. However, members of Congress can be expelled by their congressional peers. The House in 2002 expelled U.S. Rep. James Traficant of Ohio several months after he was convicted of bribery, obstruction of justice and conspiracy to defraud the United States.

Carlson and the other Republican candidates are long shots to win the Illinois seat in the November general election because the district was drawn to be heavily Democratic. During last year’s 10-year remap of congressional boundaries in response to the U.S. census, Illinois Democrats in Springfield designed the district to continue to heavily favor their party.

Rush has held the seat since 1993, and prior to Rush the 1st District seat has been held by Black Democrats for decades. Seventeen Democrats are vying for that party’s nomination to represent the 1st, a field stacked with well-funded, well-known candidates.

jebyrne@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @_johnbyrne

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