Chicago Sun-Times: All posts by Matthew Hendrickson

U.S. Supreme Court again refuses to block Illinois’ assault weapons ban

2023-12-14T17:06:50.483-06:00

Assault weapons and hand guns are seen for sale at Capitol City Arms Supply in Springfield.

Associated Press

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday refused to block Illinois’ year-old assault weapons ban.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett denied an emergency request for an injunction without comment. A similar request was denied by the court in May.

The high court had been asked to step in after the federal appeals court in Chicago last month upheld the law, which prohibits the possession, manufacture or sale of semiautomatic rifles and high-capacity magazines.

Federal appeals court upholds Illinois gun ban, finds no 2nd Amendment protection for assault weapons

A three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 in favor of the law, ruling that weapons covered by the legislation don’t have Second Amendment protection.

The appeals court found assault weapons and high-capacity magazines “are much more like machine guns and military-grade weaponry than they are like the many different types of firearms that are used for individual self-defense.”

In doing so, it found that Illinois’ controversial gun law survived the first part of a two-step test laid out in a crucial June 2022 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. That means the court’s analysis could stop without exploring the nation’s historical tradition as required by the second step. But the appeals court said challenges to the state’s law fare no better there.

Still, the appellate court said that it did not set out “to rule definitively on the constitutionality of the act” and that its opinion stems from lower courts’ rulings on requests for preliminary injunctions against Illinois’ law.

Among them was a challenge from Naperville gun store owner Robert Bevis. His bid to block the law was initially rejected by U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall in February. Kendall found that because assault weapons “are particularly dangerous … their regulation accords with history and tradition.”

The U.S. Supreme Court has twice turned down requests for emergency injunctions, but it has not yet said whether it would rule on the merits of the appellate opinion.

Illinois’ law bans the sale of assault weapons and caps the purchase of magazines at 10 rounds for long guns and 15 for handguns. Anyone who already owns the banned guns is allowed to keep them but required to register them with the Illinois State Police by Jan. 1.

The law was enacted last January in response to the shooting at Highland Park’s 2022 Fourth of July parade that left seven people dead.

The Illinois Supreme Court narrowly upheld the law Aug. 11 in a lawsuit brought this year by a central Illinois legislator who argued the sweeping ban violates the state constitution.

Federal appeals court considering Illinois assault weapons ban questions ‘popularity contest’ for guns

Meanwhile, the federal appellate court heard arguments that led to last month’s decision. During oral arguments, the panel seemed to struggle at the time with the recent guidance laid out by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In that decision, known as New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, the Supreme Court found that gun regulations must be “consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”

Opponents of the Illinois law argued the decision forbade governments from banning weapons that are “in common use.” Millions of Americans own assault-style weapons, attorneys say.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence hailed Thursday’s decision, calling it “a victory for all communities who have been held hostage by the gun industry.”

“The absence of any noted dissent illustrates just how misguided the gun industry’s attempts to undermine the state’s efforts are,” it said. “We are grateful that while this case is being litigated, the assault weapons ban will stay in effect and continue to save countless lives in Illinois and surrounding states.”

Protect Illinois Communities, a nonprofit advocacy group formed to help support passage of the ban, applauded the Supreme Court’s decision, calling the law a “common sense gun safety measure to keep assault weapons off of our streets.”

“This law helps save lives, and every day it remains in place is a step toward keeping weapons of war out of our neighborhoods,” the group’s president, Becky Carroll, said in a statement.

Former U.S. Associate Attorney General John Schmidt, a board member for the Gun Violence Prevention Political Action Committee (G-PAC) said in a statement that the repeated efforts by gun rights groups to block the law is getting “nowhere.”

“No amount of flailing around by losing lawyers alters the basic fact that sale in Illinois of these destructive weapons continues to be blocked completely,” Schmidt said in a statement.

Responding to the decision, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said “all Illinoisans are safer.” He also urged Congress to enact a federal assault weapons ban.

“We must not become inured to mass shootings in our communities. All Americans deserve the right to worship, go to school, and celebrate without living in fear,” Pritzker said in a statement. “I’m thankful once again for the members of the General Assembly who supported this law and the brave survivors who fought to make it a reality. I continue to urge Congress to act on national gun legislation so Illinois is not a lone island in a sea of states with weak gun laws.”

At least eight other states and the District of Columbia have some sort of prohibition on semiautomatic weapons, and several cases challenging those laws are making their way through the federal courts, relying at least in part on the Supreme Court’s decision in 2022 that expanded gun rights.

Contributing: Associated Press

Kenneka Jenkins’ family, hotel reach $6M settlement over freezer death

2023-12-12T14:21:42.386-06:00

Kenneka Jenkins

Facebook photo

Relatives of a 19-year-old woman who died after becoming locked inside a freezer at a Rosemont hotel will receive more than $6 million in a wrongful death settlement.

The agreement was made public Tuesday morning as the case was set to go to trial and it appeared recent efforts to reach a settlement had broken down.

Kenneka Jenkins was found dead Sept. 10, 2017, inside a walk-in freezer in an unused kitchen at the Crowne Plaza hotel, a day after attending a party there. Her death was ruled an accident caused by hypothermia, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

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Still, her death spurred a rash of conspiracy theories on social media and her funeral drew a crowd of more than 1,000 people.

Jenkins’ mother, Tereasa Martin, sued the hotel, a security company and a restaurant at the hotel, seeking more than $50 million.

The total settlement amounts to $10 million, with about $3.5 million going to attorney fees and costs for Martin’s lawyers. It includes more than $6,000 as payment for Jenkins’ funeral.

Martin will receive more than $3.7 million, court records show, with other family members receiving $1.2 million and $1.5 million.

Jenkins had attended a party in a room at the hotel and was leaving with friends around 2:30 a.m. when she realized she left her phone in the room. Her friends went back to find it, but she was gone when they returned.

Security video showed Jenkins stumbling through the hotel, entering an “abandoned” kitchen and rounding a corner toward a walk-in freezer at 3:32 a.m., the lawsuit stated.

About 4 a.m., friends alerted Martin that they had not seen her daughter since they first left the room. Martin reached out to the hotel and was told that they would review surveillance footage, the lawsuit alleged.

Jenkins’ body was not found for more than 21 hours after she was believed to have entered the freezer.

When police came to the hotel to investigate, the surveillance footage was reviewed for the first time. Hotel or security staff had not watched the recordings, the lawsuit said.

The suit alleged the hotel failed to properly monitor the security cameras, arguing that doing so “would have saved her life.”

Former Chicago cop gets probation for sexually abusing man shackled to hospital bed

2023-12-08T16:15:26.729-06:00

Former Chicago Police Officer Carlyle Calhoun in a March 2018 arrest photo.

Chicago police

A former Chicago police officer has been sentenced to probation for sexually abusing a man who was in police custody and was shackled to a hospital bed.

Carlyle Calhoun was a 10-year veteran of the police department when he was charged in March 2018 with aggravated criminal sex abuse and official misconduct.

He was found guilty of those charges, as well as aggravated battery, custodial sexual misconduct and unauthorized video recording, at the end of a bench trial in September before Judge Mary Brosnahan.

$200K bail for CPD cop accused of sexually assaulting suspect in hospital

During his sentencing hearing Friday, the judge suggested Calhoun had contributed to a loss of public trust in police with his actions, which she called “one bad choice after another after another.”

But Brosnahan also acknowledged that the former officer had lost his job and his reputation as a result.

“This has rightfully been a life-changing event for you,” she said. “You now stand as a convicted felon and will be forever.”

Brosnahan sentenced him to three years of probation with 90 days of home confinement. She told Calhoun that he would be required to register as a sex offender for 10 years.

Calhoun had been assigned to guard a suspect at St. Bernard Hospital after the man had threatened to harm himself and was awaiting psychiatric evaluation.

As the man was shackled to a hospital bed, Calhoun sucked on the man’s toes as the victim asked him to stop, grabbed the man’s genitals and took a photo of the victim when he used a portable urinal, prosecutors have said.

Later, Calhoun took the victim, whose feet were shackled, to a bathroom where Calhoun forcibly performed a sex act on the victim, prosecutors said.

The victim told hospital staff and Calhoun’s DNA was found on the man’s body, prosecutors said. The Chicago Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division took Calhoun’s cellphone and found a photo of the victim’s penis.

A spokeswoman for the police department said Calhoun resigned in March 2021.

In court Friday, prosecutors argued Calhoun had “preyed upon an individual in his own custody, someone he knew was vulnerable, someone he knew would be difficult to believe.”

“The defendant’s crimes are a disservice to all law-abiding officers,” an assistant state’s attorney told the judge.

Prosecutors didn’t call any witnesses, and the victim did not appear to attend the hearing Friday.

Calhoun’s friends and family wrote letters and spoke highly of his character. People who had once worked with Calhoun at the former Marshall Field’s store testified to his work ethic and said they found him trustworthy.

In a plea for leniency, Calhoun’s 81-year-old mother, a retired teacher with Chicago Public Schools, said her son had helped her through some difficult health concerns in recent years.

“He could see the bright side when I couldn’t see it,” she said on the stand.

Calhoun gave a brief statement in court before he was sentenced, thanking Brosnahan for overseeing the case.

For robbery of $33 of underwear, Illinois appeals court upholds 10-year sentence

‘Bank jackings’ in Chicago see robbers drain victims’ accounts with their banking apps, cellphones; also tips on how to protect yourself

2023-12-08T05:30:00-06:00

Bank apps like this one have been used by robbers to loot victims’ accounts. These crimes involving cell phones are a relatively new and growing phenomenon in the city’s growing scourge of robberies.

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere / Sun-Times

You know about carjackings. Now, you also need to be wary of “bank jackings.”

Millions of Americans whip out their phones to pay for everything from dinners to vacation rentals using banking apps like Zelle, Venmo and Cash App. But that convenience is fueling a new kind of robbery.

In Chicago and other cities, gunmen have been forcing people to unlock their phones with their pass codes or technology that recognizes thumbprints and faces, according to police.

Once in, the robbers drain victims’ bank accounts. The payoff is often $1,000 or more — a lot more than criminals typically score by just stealing a wallet.

In Chicago, the robbers often wear the kinds of masks that have been common since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. So, even when the police can trace where a money transfer ended up from someone’s phone, the victim often can’t identify the assailant.

Chicago is seeing largest spike in robberies in over 20 years, analysis shows

Holdups overall are up more than 25% in Chicago this year through Nov. 26 over last year. According to detectives, these “bank jackings” involving cellphones are a relatively new and growing phenomenon in the growing scourge of robberies, which last year included more than 1,600 carjackings. The number of bank jackings isn’t clear because the Chicago Police Department doesn’t list them as a separate category of robberies.

Zachary Skinner is among the victims. Around 1 a.m. on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Skinner, 21, a college student from Valparaiso, Indiana, was bar-hopping with friends in Wrigleyville when a man in a ski mask walked up to him.

According to Skinner, the man asked for a donation “to help less fortunate kids afford sports gear.”

Skinner says he tried to get the guy to go away by reaching into his pocket and handing him $7.

The intersection of West Eddy Street and North Clark Street. Zachary Skinner was robbed nearby on Nov. 25.

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere / Sun-Times

Skinner had a “sinking feeling” it wouldn’t be enough. It wasn’t.

Another masked man approached, pulled up his shirt to show the gun in his waistband and demanded Skinner’s phone and pass code.

‘Painful lesson’ on payment apps: It was a lot easier to be scammed than Chicago business owner realized

The man used the Zelle app on the phone to send $1,000 to a bank account with a woman’s first name.

Skinner was lucky. He was able to reach his parents and get them to freeze his bank account before the person on the other end of the illegal transfer could accept the money.

Skinner’s friends, talking nearby with other people, were unaware of what was happening.

If the robbers had managed to drain his bank account, Skinner says he would have had to work a lot of extra hours to make up for that — which would have been a major hardship because, being a two-sport college athlete, he doesn’t have a lot of free time.

Skinner says his attackers were masked, so he couldn’t identify them.

Gig workers increasingly are being targeted by scammers online and even from the backseat

He says he should have stayed closer to his friends that night.

“It really puts things in perspective,” he says. “I mean, your life can be taken away in, like, two seconds.”

He knows that uninstalling the bank app from his phone would keep this from happening again.

“But would it be practical?” says Skinner, who uses the app all the time. “Probably not.”

A bank jacking in Streeterville

Anthony Morris is among those who have been charged in the last year with carrying out bank app robberies in Chicago. Morris, 28, a felon with convictions for burglary and theft, is accused of robbing a 40-year-old man about 4 a.m. on Dec. 29, 2022, in Streeterville. According to his arrest report, he pointed a gun at the man in a parking garage in the 600 block of North McClurg Place and told him, “Give me your phone and money, or I will kill you.”

The man gave him his wallet but said his phone was in his 41st-floor apartment nearby.

Morris then led the man to the apartment, pointing a gun at his back, police said. The man gave up his iPhone 14, and Morris took him back to the parking lot, according to the police, who say Morris stole $1,350 using the PayPal app on the man’s phone, $6,850 more with Cash App and $350 with Apple Cash.

The police report says Morris reminded the man that he now knew where he lived and said that, if he “tried to do anything stupid, he would shoot him in the head.”

Morris also tried to steal the man’s BMW but didn’t know how to drive a stick shift, according to the police.

Morris was identified through a surveillance video, and the victim was able to pick him out of a photo array, police said. Morris is awaiting trial on armed robbery and kidnapping charges.

Zelle is a digital payments network run by a firm owned by banks that include JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and U.S. Bank. Offered by more than 2,100 banks and credit unions, it covers more than 80% of personal and small-business accounts in the United States.

Users enrolled in the Zelle app can send and request money by adding another person’s phone number or email address, a cash amount and a memo showing what the money is for.

Payments typically are then available in minutes, but financial institutions set different limits for how much cash can be transferred each day and month. In 2022, Zelle users sent 2.3 billion payments totaling more than $629 billion.

Other digital payment apps like Venmo and Cash App are operated by tech firms but similarly allow users to transfer money online quickly. Venmo is owned by PayPal. Cash App is owned by Block Inc., a San-Francisco company co-founded by former Twitter chief executive officer Jack Dorsey.

Jack Dorsey, former chief executive officer of Twitter, co-founded Block Inc., owner of Cash App.

Getty Images

Venmo says it hasn’t seen a significant rise in bank jacking reports, which the payment platform calls a phone-security issue. The company recommends security measures that app users can enable to protect their accounts, like facial recognition, multifactor authentication and a PIN code. If an account is breached, Venmo says, customers should contact its customer service, change their account information, contact their financial institutions and call the police.

Cash App points to its “security lock” feature, which similarly offers layers of security to open the app and transfer cash. When users’ PIN or security settings change, they’re alerted by the company.

Zelle didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Bank jacking: How to protect yourself

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO PROTECT YOURSELF

What can people do to get their money back if their bank app is hijacked?

According to the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, “The consumer is not liable for the unauthorized transfer, and the financial institution must refund the consumer.”

Victims of fraud or robberies must contact the bank or “digital wallet provider” to start the “error-resolution process,” according to the federal agency.

Under federal regulations, a police report isn’t required.

But Ed Mierzwinski, senior director of the federal consumer program for the Public Interest Research Group, says federal regulators need to “come down harder” on companies that operate bank apps. He says the businesses blame consumers for crimes associated with the apps and “wash their hands” of their responsibility under the law.

“My advice until then: Don’t use the apps!” Mierzwinski says.

A rise of bank jackings nationally

New York Mayor Eric Adams announces charges against five people accused of drugging bar patrons to rob them. John Umberger, a political consultant whose bank account was drained using apps on his phone, was one of two victims who died.

Getty Images

Violent bank jacking incidents have been reported across the country in the last two years.

In New York, a political consultant from Washington disappeared on May 28, 2022, after visiting a nightclub. His body was found days later. Police discovered more than $25,000 was transferred from his bank accounts through apps on his phone, according to news reports.

In New York, charges in killings of gay men who were drugged and robbed

Other killings have also been linked to bank app robberies in New York.

In Chicago, an architect was walking to a downtown Metra station to catch a train about 5 a.m. on July 28 when he says three armed men jumped out of a car in the first block of South Jefferson Street, grabbed his cellphone and tried unlocking it by holding the device to his face.

When the facial recognition technology didn’t work, he says the robbers demanded his pass codes and then stole $2,000 through the Zelle banking app that was linked to his Chase account. They also took his wallet, and using the ATM password he gave them at gunpoint, drained another $1,000 in cash from his bank account.

“It was probably as traumatic for my wife and children as it was for me,” he says, “because who knows what could’ve happened to me.”

The architect says his bank almost immediately reimbursed the money taken from the ATM and recently forgave the thousands of dollars the robbers charged to his credit cards.

But the man, who asked that his name not be used, says he’s still fighting to be reimbursed for the money looted from his bank with his Zelle app: “I started bugging them and asking, ‘Why haven’t you responded to the claim for over four months?’ ”

He says Chicago police officers, responding within minutes after the holdup, chased the getaway car with the help of a police helicopter, but the high-speed pursuit was called off because of police department safety rules. The robbery remains unsolved.

“They have lots of commercials about how you can go pay for your friend’s meal, it makes it really easy, but they don’t say it’s like carrying a couple thousand dollars worth of cash in your pocket all the time,” says the architect, who offers this advice: “Don’t have any banking apps on your phone.”

A Chicago police detective who’s handled three banking app robberies offers a less drastic safety solution. People could consider uninstalling their apps, reinstalling them only when they need to make a payment and then disabling them again.

“It really doesn’t take that much time,” says the detective, asking not to be named because he wasn’t authorized by the department to speak. “It keeps the bad guys out of your bank account. This is a new thing — and it’s only going to get worse.”

Contributing: Sophie Sherry, Rosemary Sobol

Blind injustice? Judge in Chicago overturns murder conviction based on legally blind eyewitness

2023-12-05T14:55:11.151-06:00

Darien Harris, 30, has spent the last dozen years in prison.

Illinois Department of Corrections

A Cook County judge on Tuesday overturned a murder conviction that was based in part on the testimony of a witness who was legally blind.

But Darien Harris will remain in jail because prosecutors said they plan to try him again.

Harris, 30, has spent the last 12 years in prison after being found guilty of killing Rondell Moore and wounding another man on June 7, 2011, at a BP gas station in Woodlawn.

Instead of facing a jury, Harris chose to have his case decided by Judge Nicholas Ford. There was no physical evidence linking Harris to the shooting, but the judge cited the strong testimony of an eyewitness, Dexter Saffold.

Saffold told the judge he saw the shooting from less than 20 feet away as he was riding his motorized scooter home from a restaurant. He said the shooter had even bumped into him as he ran off.

Saffold identified Harris for police and again at trial as the gunman.

Ford called the testimony “unblemished,” and said he believed Saffold was an “honest witness,” according to a report by Injustice Watch published by the Sun-Times. The judge sentenced Harris to 76 years in prison.

Read story: Judge gave teen 76 years based on eyewitness he didn’t know was legally blind

One problem: Saffold had been declared legally blind by a doctor in 2002.

Attorneys working on Harris’ appeal found that Saffold’s vision problems had been documented in several lawsuits he had filed against colleges, a landlord and two employers in the years before Harris’ trial.

Seeking to get Harris’ conviction overturned, his lawyers asked the Cook County state’s attorney’s conviction integrity unit to review the case. The unit conducted a review, but the office decided to take no action, according to defense attorney Lauren Myerscough-Mueller.

On Tuesday, prosecutors told Judge Diana Kenworthy that they agreed Harris’ conviction and sentence should be vacated, but they said they still believed Harris was the gunman and planned to take him to trial a second time.

Saffold wasn’t the only witness, prosecutors told Kenworthy. A second man, Aaron Jones, told a grand jury that he drove Harris to the gas station just before the shooting. Jones was pulled over by police shortly afterward and identified Harris, prosecutors said.

But Jones recanted that identification at the trial, claiming police had threatened him into pointing the finger at Harris. Jones has since died.

Judge who convicted man in case with legally blind eyewitness retires

Defense attorneys said a clerk at the gas station was also pressured by police to identify Harris, even though he said he recognized the shooter and it wasn’t Harris.

Before being asked to identify Harris in a lineup, the clerk said detectives showed him a photo of Harris and said he was the shooter, according to the defense lawyers. The clerk didn’t identify Harris and wasn’t called at trial.

In deciding against releasing Harris while he waits for another trial, Kenworthy cited the seriousness of the charge and the decades in prison Harris faces if convicted again.

Harris is due back in court Dec. 19, when a trial date could be set.

Jussie Smollett’s 2021 conviction, sentence upheld on appeal, but actor vows to fight on

2023-12-01T12:05:50.901-06:00

Former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett walks into the Leighton Criminal Courthouse for a hearing on Feb. 24, 2020.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

A state appeals court panel has affirmed the conviction and sentence of actor Jussie Smollett for lying to police about being the victim of a hate crime that he was accused of staging for publicity.

Despite that, a spokeswoman for the actor said Friday after the decision was released that Smollett plans to continue to fight his conviction and would take the case to the Illinois Supreme Court.

“We wish to highlight that the decision was divided, with Justice Lyle offering a detailed analysis in favor of Smollett. We are preparing to escalate this matter to the Supreme Court, armed with a substantial body of evidence,” the spokeswoman wrote in a statement.

Smollett has 35 days to file a petition with the state’s highest court, which could decline to hear the case, send it back to the appellate court for review or back to the trial court, legal experts told the Sun-Times.

If Smollett petitions the court’s justices, he is unlikely to have to report to Cook County Jail anytime soon. However, if the state Supreme Court declines to hear the case, the matter would be sent back to Cook County to set a date for the actor to surrender himself to jail.

A Cook County jury found Smollett guilty of five counts of disorderly conduct in 2021, and he was sentenced to 30 months of probation, with the first 150 days to be served at Cook County Jail.

Smollett appealed the conviction and was released while it was pending after spending six days of the sentence behind bars.

READ: Sun-Times coverage of the Jussie Smollett case

The charges stemmed from the actor’s claims that he was attacked by two men who made remarks indicating they were supporters of President Donald Trump while beating him, dousing him with a bleach-like substance and hanging a thin, rope noose around his neck as he walked to his Streeterville apartment in January 2019.

At the time, Smollett was a rising star on the cast of the hit television show “Empire” and attempting to launch a music career.

‘Empire’ star victim of racist, homophobic attack in Streeterville, police say

Word of the alleged attack quickly spread in the media, and the actor received support from many high-profile figures. Chicago police said they dedicated thousands of hours to investigating Smollett’s claims, only for the evidence to point to the actor’s involvement in staging the attack.

Smollett was charged the next month with disorderly conduct for filing a false police report. He pleaded not guilty.

Actor Jussie Smollett listens as his attorney, Patricia Brown Holmes, speaks to reporters at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse after prosecutors dropped all charges against him on March 26, 2019.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times file

But in a stunning decision that March, State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office announced it was dropping all charges after reaching an agreement with the actor to use his bond to pay restitution to the city. Smollett was not required to admit guilt as part of the deal.

The decision has dogged Foxx since. A special prosecutor was appointed to review it, and while while their report did not find criminal wrongdoing, Special Prosecutor Dan Webb wrote there were “substantial abuses of discretion and operational failures.”

Webb later brought a new indictment against Smollett, charging the actor a second time, which eventually led to his conviction.

“It’s a good day, I was pleased by the court’s decision,” Webb said when reached by phone Friday. “It’s been a long process.”

(From left) Abimbola Osundairo, attorney Gloria Schmidt Rodriguez and Olabinjo Osundairo walk into the Leighton Criminal Courthouse for the Jussie Smollett trial on Dec. 2, 2021.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times file

Smollett has steadfastly denied he was involved in orchestrating the attack, including when he took the stand at his trial. But testimony from brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, who said Smollett paid them to take part, and video showing Smollett driving all three around to plan the attack sunk the actor in the eyes of the jury.

Jussie Smollett juror: Split decision was ‘favor’ to actor after debate over final count

During Smollett’s sentencing, Judge James Linn, who oversaw the trial and retired earlier this year, chastised the actor, saying “There are people who are actual genuine victims of hate crimes that you did damage to.”

Smollett responded by repeatedly shouting he wasn’t suicidal after the sentence was handed down and warned “if anything happens to me when I go in there, I did not do it to myself.”

Actor Jussie Smollett speaks to Judge James Linn after his sentence is read at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, Thursday, March 10, 2022.

Brian Cassella/AP file

In his appeal, Smollett’s attorneys argued the second round of charges against the actor violated his agreement with Cook County prosecutors and claimed Linn’s sentence was excessive.

In the 2-1 decision released Friday, Justices David Navarro and Mary Ellen Coghlan affirmed the conviction and said they did not find his sentence unreasonable.

“The record does not establish that Smollett entered into a nonprosecution agreement ... in exchange for his performance of community service and the forfeiture of his bond,” the opinion written by Navarro stated.

Justice Fredrenna Lyle dissented, saying she would have overturned the conviction.

“Smollett did not enter into a plea agreement with the State, but a bilateral agreement took place, which bound the State, nonetheless,” Lyle wrote. “The majority contends that there is no evidence in the State’s agreement that the parties intended for the agreement to be tantamount to a dismissal with prejudice. I disagree.”

Richard Kling, a professor at Chicago–Kent College of Law, said the question may be interesting enough for the state Supreme Court to consider, noting that actor Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction was overturned by Pennsylvania’s highest court on similar arguments.

“I think that’s [Smollett’s] strongest argument and best chance,” Kling said.

Murder conviction of man who killed Cmdr. Paul Bauer upheld by appellate court

2023-11-24T13:15:54.62-06:00

Shomari Legghette listens to attorneys during closing statements in March 2020 during his murder trial at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse.

Pool photo by Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune

A state appellate court has upheld the murder conviction of Shomari Legghette, who gunned down Chicago Police Cmdr. Paul Bauer nearly six years ago in a Loop stairwell during a foot pursuit.

The three-justice panel rejected all of Legghette’s arguments on appeal, including that the trial judge had improperly denied a motion to allow the defense to admit evidence of allegations that Bauer had used unreasonable force and/or racist language during arrests on three occasions in the 1990s.

Legghette, 50, had also claimed he was improperly denied a mistrial over comments the jury heard a police officer make in body-worn camera footage shown at his trial and that the court wrongly denied his motion for new defense attorneys.

All three justices ruled against Legghette to affirm his conviction in Wednesday’s order.

Gunman found guilty of murdering CPD Cmdr. Paul Bauer

Jurors took three hours to find Legghette guilty on all six of the counts he faced at his March 2020 trial, including first-degree murder. He was convicted just days before states began to implement shutdown orders to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

That same month, all jury trials in the Cook County Circuit Court were suspended, an order that would last for more than a year as the courts moved largely to videoconferencing services to conduct business.

A button adorns the lapel of a Chicago Police officer at the funeral for Cmdr. Paul Bauer in 2018.

Sun-Times file

Legghette was sentenced to life in prison the following October.

“There was nothing fair about this prosecution,” he said during the sentencing hearing and pledged to appeal.

Bauer was shot on Feb. 13, 2018, as he struggled with Legghette over a gun in a stairwell outside the Thompson Center.

Cop killer Shomari Legghette gets life in prison for murder of Chicago Police Cmdr. Paul Bauer

The police commander had pursued Legghette into the stairwell after hearing a police radio broadcast his description as other officers chased him through the Loop to question him in connection with a shooting on Lower Wacker Drive several days earlier.

Legghette was immediately taken into custody and was wearing body armor and had a pistol with an extended clip holding 30 rounds of ammunition.

At the time, Bauer was the first officer shot to death in the line of duty since 2011.

Repeat felon charged in shooting death of Chicago Police Cmdr. Paul Bauer

Justice reform groups partner with Vic Mensa’s pot company to provide care packages to people released from jail

2023-11-21T16:05:31.042-06:00

A duffle bag branded with the logos of the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice, which advocated for the end of cash bail in the state, and Chicago rapper Vic Mensa’s cannabis company, 93 Boyz. Bags like this will be filled with gift cards and everyday essentials and distributed this week to people being released from Cook County Jail.

Provided by the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice

A network of community groups involved in advocating for historic reforms that abolished cash bail in Illinois this year have partnered with a cannabis company to provide care packages to people being released from Cook County Jail this week.

The Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice said it raised thousands of dollars from individual donations and apparel sales to create the care packages for people as they are released from the jail while their criminal cases are pending.

Members of the network include prominent groups that advocated for the end of cash bail, including Restore Justice, TASC, chapters of the League of Women Voters and YWCA, and several drug policy reform organizations, including Clergy for a New Drug Policy and Students for Sensible Drug Policy.

Illinois becomes first state in nation to eliminate cash bail: Here’s how it will work

The care packages contain toiletries, gift cards to a grocery store and information about the rights of criminal defendants, including those under the Pretrial Fairness Act, which went into effect in September and established new processes for determining if a person should be detained or released with conditions ahead of trial.

They are packed into duffle bags that are co-branded with the network’s logo and Chicago rapper Vic Mensa’s cannabis company, 93 Boyz, whose products are sold at state-licensed dispensaries.

93 Boyz is also donating 100 American Express $50 gift cards in the care packages, the company’s brand manager, Ari Wade, told the Sun-Times.

Wade said supporting the network’s efforts to spread information about the Pretrial Fairness Act and give people being released from jail access to some everyday necessities was part of the company’s efforts to give back to the community.

“Yes, it’s a cannabis company … but our big thing is to help the community in any way we can,” Wade said.

Wade said other co-branded projects with the network were being planned to teach people about the Pretrial Fairness Act. She said she didn’t consider the giveaway to be a form of advertising for the company.

“We don’t give product out. We don’t put any product in the bags,” she said.

The company’s logo and branding features gas station imagery, a nod to “gas” as slang for particularly potent-smelling marijuana that some associate with the scent of gasoline.

Tanya Watkins, executive director of Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation, a member organization in the network, said she supported the decision to partner with a cannabis company.

Chicago rapper Vic Mensa’s 93 Boyz cannabis company is contributing American Express gift cards to the care packages being given to people released from Cook County Jail this week.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

“For them to use their resources to pour back into the community, to pour back into community members, I personally will always appreciate that,” Watkins said.

Matthew McLoughlin, a spokesman for the network, couldn’t say whether distributors would avoid giving out bags to people under 21, or to people who have been ordered to refrain from intoxicating substances as a condition of their pretrial release.

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McLoughlin said the network has partnered with other for-profit companies in the past, pointing to a recent Instagram post by Ben and Jerry’s ice cream that advocates for other states to abolish cash bail.

“Any of us who have enjoyed a pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream — maybe it’s not the healthiest — but fine if used in moderation,” he said.

Asked if the network would consider partnering with an alcohol or tobacco company, McLoughlin said he saw a significant difference between the two.

“I don’t think you can compare the two as the same thing,” he said, noting that marijuana can be used medicinally.

“It’s not like anyone is out in front of the jail handing out information about the company, there’s not a coupon in there or anything directing people to go rush over to the dispensary,” he said.

McLoughlin said the decision to partner with 93 Boyz and place their logos side by side was made by select groups in a committee and was not approved by all members of the network.

2 charged with killing security guard during heist at Calumet City mall

2023-11-17T13:42:27.957-06:00

Calumet City police announced murder charges against two Chicago men on Friday, just over a year after guard Norman Thomas was gunned down at Flawless Diamonds in River Oaks Center.

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Two men have been charged with killing a security guard last year at a mall in Calumet City during a brazen daytime robbery.

Maxx Walker and Frank Adkins, both 38 and of Chicago, each face a first-degree murder charge and were ordered detained during their initial court appearances Tuesday at the Markham Courthouse.

Calumet City police announced the charges Friday, just over a year after guard Norman Thomas was gunned down around noon on Nov. 16, 2022, at Flawless Diamonds in the River Oaks Center.

In an affidavit filed by police, investigators said Walker was initially taken into custody the day of the shooting, and at that time, he admitted to the roles he and Adkins played as getaway drivers in the robbery.

A spokesman for police declined to say Friday why it took nearly a year to bring charges.

Three other suspects who allegedly stormed the mall with handguns and an assault-style weapon, shooting Thomas when he raised his gun to confront them, are still being sought by authorities, according to court records. The police spokesman declined to provide more information.

After shooting Thomas, the gunmen smashed several display cases and made off with an undisclosed amount of merchandise, police said.

Adkins drove thegunmen to the mall in a stolen Infiniti, waited outside while the robbery took place and then drove the three gunmen away, police said. Walker, who was waiting in the area in a white Maserati, then allegedly picked up the three gunmen and Adkins near where the Infiniti was later found abandoned.

Thomas, 57, was rushed to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he died from multiple gunshot wounds. Police said he was a father, grandfather and Army veteran who had served overseas in Operation Desert Storm.

The Maserati driven by Walker was found to be registered to the mother of his child, who was called on the day of the slaying by a Cook County sheriff’s official who informed her that the license plate was being broadcast over police scanners, police said.

The woman allegedly told the sheriff’s official that she was at work and that Walker had her car. Walker called her later that day and claimed the license plates for her car had been stolen, according to police.

When she confronted Walker at her home when he returned the car, he told her that “he picked up some people who were in a jam a few blocks from the mall,” but denied knowing more, police said. They were both taken into custody a short time later.

In custody, Walker allegedly made admissions, including identifying Adkins and the others involved in the robbery.

Police said extensive security footage showed Walker, Adkins and three other individuals moving together at several locations that day.

Anyone with information is asked to call police at 708-868-2500.

Frank Adkins

Cook County sheriff’s office

Maxx Walker

Cook County sheriff’s office

Pilsen mother addresses son’s killer after, his conviction, overturned, he pleads to lesser charge

2023-11-17T11:30:00-06:00

Maria Pike holds a photo of her son Ricky Pike at her home in Pilsen. He was shot when a passenger in his car was mistaken for a gang member.

Anthony Vazquez / Sun-Times

Maria Pike waited for years to see her son’s killer brought to justice, only to learn his murder conviction was reversed on appeal last year.

She watched with frustration as the man who shot her son Ricky Pike pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was ordered released on parole.

“All I want for my son is justice, not revenge,” she said during a hearing Monday in a Cook County courtroom. “I want accountability. That is my job as a mother. That is not what I am getting today.”

Arcadio Davila walked out of Stateville prison two days later. He maintains his innocence despite pleading to second-degree murder.

“I pleaded guilty because my family needed me, and that’s the only reason,” Davila, 35, said when reached by phone.

Pike said what happened demonstrates how families of violent crime victims often have to wait for cases to go through Cook County’s slow court system and the difficulties prosecutors face when they choose to pursue a case a second time.

“It feels like it’s never really over,” Pike said in an interview.

A collage of images with Ricky Pike at Maria Pike’s home in Pilsen.

Anthony Vazquez / Sun-Times

A Cook County state’s attorney’s spokeswoman said the decision to make a deal with Davila “was made with a deep sense of responsibility.” She said it provides “a measure of justice to those affected, acknowledging the complexities and the passage of time in this case.”

Ricky Pike, 24, was killed early Aug. 3, 2012, shot because a passenger in his car was wearing a green-and-gold Oakland Athletics baseball cap, prosecutors said during Davila’s 2018 trial.

After Ricky Pike parked in the 2100 block of North St. Louis Avenue, near his Logan Square apartment, a sedan pulled alongside his car.

“Hey, what’s up,” the shooter said before shooting him multiple times and hitting a friend who was with him in the hand, according to testimony.

Maria Pike said it’s the kind of shooting that too often goes unsolved in Chicago.

But this time detectives had an eyewitness. Ricky Pike’s passenger grew up in the neighborhood and said he “immediately” recognized Davila because he’s known him since grade school.

The passenger had moved away and didn’t see Davila again until December 2011, when they ran into each other at a party in Logan Square, he testified. Ricky Pike’s friend said the street was brightly lit at the time of the shooting and that he was “100% sure” it was Davila who pulled the trigger, court records show.

Police testified that Davila had been shot at two days earlier while standing with members of the Imperial Gangsters, whose rivals, a gang called Orchestra Albany, wore green and gold as their colors.

Davila denied any involvement and said he had been sleeping at home, which his stepfather backed up.

But the jury found Davila guilty of first-degree murder and attempted murder, and he was sentenced to 80 years in prison — until the conviction was reversed last year.

The appeals court judges rejected most of Davila’ claims, saying the sole eyewitness had been consistent and credible. But comments detectives made while questioning Davila that were shown to jurors might have been prejudicial, the court ruled.

Prosecutors were faced with the prospect of retrying the case a decade after the shooting and with the witness now hesitant to go through another trial, several people with knowledge of the case said.

Maria Pike said she understands the witness’ reluctance to testify a second time, noting that he had moved several times and even changed his name after the first trial and wanted to put the case behind him.

Still, he agreed to participate and gave a statement to prosecutors last month.

Then, on Sept. 26, the day the second trial was set to start, prosecutors revealed that the witness said for the first time that he had also seen Davila open fire at the party they attended the year before Ricky Pike was shot. The retrial was delayed.

Messages left for the witness weren’t returned.

When prosecutors told Maria Pike they were going to offer Davila a plea deal, she said she was conflicted about whether to risk a second trial if it meant he could be released without acknowledging that he killed her son.

In spite of the deal, she said she still hopes to get that acknowledgment. Davila spent about 10 years in prison.

“I never wanted you to serve 80-plus years, but I did want for you to accept responsibility for the worst mistake you made in your life, an error so big it destroyed my family and yours,” the mother, who has gotten involved in anti-violence work, told Davila.

“I don’t believe that has happened yet. And I am praying for you to do the right thing because your debt to society is not fully paid,” she said.

Maria Pike displays this photo of her son Ricky at her home.

Anthony Vazquez / Sun-Times

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