CHICAGO — West Loop residents and councilors have worked for months to get the city to clear homeless encampments that have holed up under overpasses in the neighborhood. They said they had become catalysts for shootings and drug trafficking. They eventually had some success, but the process was quite slow.
One of the first signs of success came in late November last year when Chicago police arrested a man in a tent city near the Clinton CTA station after he allegedly sold drugs to an undercover officer.
In a tent where the man was allegedly trafficking, police reportedly found a backpack containing a firearm with an extended magazine attached and baggies of heroin and crack. In court records, police said they found nearly three-quarters of a pound of heroin worth $52,875 and $8,610 worth of crack. They also found approximately 5 ounces of liquid codeine and $1,188 in cash, according to court documents.
Prosecutors have charged the accused man, 19-year-old Tailon Appleton, with, among other things, armed violence, a Class In court the next morning, prosecutors asked a judge to keep him in jail pending trial, saying he posed a threat to public safety. Instead, Judge Maryam Ahmad sent him home with an ankle bracelet.
That didn’t go down well with Ald. Bill Conway (34th).
“The judge choosing to release the suspect is shocking,” Conway said said on Twitter as soon as you learn of the decision. “The SAFE-T Act was not the problem, it allows detention here.”
If Conway was disappointed that Appleton was sent home after his arrest, he might want to sit down and hear the sentence Appleton received last week: probation.
Appleton pleaded guilty to illegal gun possession and manufacturing and delivery of fentanyl, part of an agreement he made with prosecutors. The state dropped that Class
Judge Laura Ayala-Gonzalez sentenced him to two years of probation and 30 hours of community service. She also issued a slew of other demands, including that Appleton get a GED, completely avoid alcohol and drugs, and participate in the programming.
