A man who knocked out a woman's teeth in the South Loop in 2008 when she refused to give him a cigarette became violent again, according to police, this time beating up his longtime female companion.



The latest attack took place Monday night in the Lawndale neighborhood on the West Side, police said.



It was his fifth arrest since late last year. All five resulted in only misdemeanor charges.



Derrick King, 50, was booked into Cook County Jail today after a Domestic Court judge set a $20,000 bail for him on a charge of misdemeanor domestic battery, said a Cook County Sheriff's office spokeswoman.



Monday about 10:30 p.m. police responded to the 600 block of South Western Avenue for a call of a battery in progress, police said.



A man who witnessed the attack told police he saw King striking the victim with his hands and feet. He intervened, using "physical force'' to pull King away after he'd kicked her in the face while she was on the ground, causing swelling, police said.



Both King and the victim were "highly intoxicated'' and uncooperative, according to police.



The woman was taken to John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County in an unidentified condition and King was arrested.



His next court date on this charge is set for 9 a.m. on March 21, also at Domestic Court, 555 W. Harrison St., the sheriff's spokeswoman said.



King was cited by critics of the state's early prison release program when he was accused of threatening a woman in 2009, a day after getting out of prison for the brutal attack against Jennifer Hall on her birthday in August 2008.



King was sent back to jail after the 2009 incident and was released late in 2010. Since then he has been arrested at least two time on drug charges, records show, and since December 2011 he's racked up four other arrests.



According to police reports:

-- In Feb. 19, 2012, he was taken into custody at 33 E. Roosevelt Rd. when officers saw him drinking a 24-ounce can of beer while on the public way.

--On Feb. 4, 2012, in the 1100 block of West Bryn Mawr Avenue, police responded to a disturbance and he was arrested on a warrant.

--On Jan. 5, 2012, at 1221 S. Wabash Ave., a BP gas station, witnesses saw him and the victim in Monday's incident having an "intense verbal altercation'' that was frightening customers and disrupting business, police said. They both were arrested and charged with criminal trespass to land, police said.

--Dec. 12, 2011, police were called to the 1000 block of West Wilson Avenue after King followed a man from a CTA "L" station turnstile and repeatedly asked him for money, according to a police report.



When the man told King he didn't have any cash, King continued to follow him and said: "I'll kill you if you don't give me any money,'' according to the report. The man became frightened and called police, telling authorities he wanted to press charges, police said.



King, of the 900 block of West Lawrence Avenue, was arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault in that case, police said.



King's notoriety stems from a brutal attack on Aug. 25, 2008.



Jennifer Hall was with her boyfriend when King, accompanied by the victim from Monday's attack, attacked Hall on her 36th birthday when she refused to give him a cigarette outside a Jewel-Osco grocery store at Wabash and Roosevelt. He knocked out 20 of her teeth.



"My hair was down to my waist for 20 years," Hall told the Tribune after the attack. "I woke up bald -- no teeth, 85 staples in my head -- out of a drug-induced coma.''



King pleaded guilty to two criminal charges in the Hall attack and was sentenced to three years in prison.



But just 18 days after his plea, state records show King was paroled as part of an early-release program. He was given credit for serving a little more than 13 months in Cook County Jail.



Just one day after his October 2009 release, King threatened another woman near the same place he attacked Hall, yelling: "Remember the couple who got beat real bad for not giving a cigarette? That was me," according to police.



He was charged with misdemeanor assault after the 2009 arrest and sent back to prison for a parole violation.



He was released in the fall of 2010, this time without parole conditions, authorities said.



rsobol@tribune.com

Twitter: @RosemarySobol1

