Chicago – Santiago Josue Baragas Rodriguez, a Venezuelan migrant who was arrested 13 times a year, received the old treatment with “good news, bad news” in the 26th and California Courthouse on Thursday.
The good news? A judge gave him a probationary period for trying to rob a woman in Streeterville in November. The bad news (for him): Because he pleaded guilty, he is now eligible for deportation.
We introduced you to Baragas Rodriguez in November after a 43-year-old woman intervened when he saw him use a rock to try to break the end of her electric bicycle in the 400 block of North City Front Place.
When she tried to take her bike back, Baragas Rodriguez, 20, waved the rock and struck and struggled with her, according to a Chicago police report. A witness jumped in to disarm Baragas Rodriguez and hold it until officers arrived.
Baragas Rodriguez was at the time of the theft attempt for three separate shoplifting. The first judge to see him about the allegations of the theft, noted that he “continues to commit crimes against civilians in Chicago.”
On Thursday he argued guilty of attempted theft before Judge Shelley Sutker-Dmer, who handed him the two-year tasting sentence. She also sentenced him to six months in prison, compensated for 112 days that he had already spent behind bars since he was arrested in Streeterville.
Sutker-Ddermer took the time to advise Baragas Rodriguez that he could be deported in the light of his over-judgment, according to a person who was in court during the conviction.
Baragas Rodriguez barely entered his plea for a week after President Donald Trump de Cloth Riley Actwho “the federal detention is required by illegal immigrants accused of theft, burglary, attacking a law enforcement officer and every crime that causes death or serious physical injury.”
On Thursday, Officers of Justice dropped the three active shoplifting cases Baragas Rodriguez with which he was confronted. Earlier they dropped most of his other nine criminal cases, mainly retail thefts, although he did not go to court for some of them.
On May 20, the employee of a Macy accused him of shoplifting in the 111 North State Store. At the time, he was on provisional release for alleged shoplifting from Nordstrom Rack, 101 East Chicago, on 3 May. Both cases were dropped.
On April 4, he was arrested for a violation after he reportedly refused to leave the Northwestern Memorial Hospital Parking Garage. Prosecutors dropped the case on 11 June.
On May 16, Rodriguez did not show up for a case accused him of mistreatment and criminal violation in the loop. Prosecutors dropped the indictment in his absence because the alleged victim did not show up either. He did not appear on 7 March for a case with accusations that he shoped from Home Depot, 4555 South Western Avenue. Prosecutors also dropped that case.
He did not appear on December 12, 2023 for a shoplifting in which he was accused of stealing two pairs of shoes from Nordstrom Rack, 24 North State. Again, public prosecutors dropped the indictment because the store did not send a representative to the court.
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