CHICAGO – When someone in Illinois is charged with an “arrestable offense,” a crime so serious that the law allows him/her to be held pending trial, he/she is not automatically thrown in jail. Prosecutors must first decide whether to seek the individual’s arrest and then a judge must approve the request.
In Cook County as well as across the state, judges grant roughly two out of every three requests for pretrial detention. In Chicago, however, a judge is much less likely to put a suspect behind bars. In fact, he grants fewer than half of the petitions in which prosecutors are present in his court.
His name is Judge David Kelly. We reported last month that Kelly granted just 46% of detention requests during a recent 70-day period, the lowest approval rate among the nine judges assigned to the pretrial division of the 26th and California courthouse in Chicago.
In the first two weeks after our report came out, Kelly’s performance remained steady; he approved only 48% of detention requests.
Double escape
On September 28, Chicago police arrested 24-year-old Wrentles Brimmer at the Cermak Red Line station. They initially stopped him for smoking on the train, but became suspicious when he gave them a false name, according to the report they later filed.
“Don’t shoot me,” Brimmer allegedly told officers as they walked him out of the station. “I have a gun with me.”
When they lifted his sweatshirt, officers allege, they found a loaded handgun in Brimmer’s waistband.
What does this have to do with Kelly?
Well, prosecutors asked Kelly earlier this year to arrest Brimmer and a man named Deonte Cousins when they accused them of taking part in the violent robbery of a pot dealer on a Red Line platform on 47th Street.
Kelly denied both petitions and sent the men home under electronic monitoring. Officials say Brimmer cut off his ankle monitor in April (they found it outside a federal building in the Loop in April). According to court records, Cousins remains at large after escaping from his electronic monitoring tape in June.
Brimmer is now in jail after another judge, Ankur Srivastava, granted a request for detention in connection with the new weapons case.
Since mid-September, Kelly has denied detention requests for people accused of:
Attempted murder. Martin Jasso-Perez, 37, is accused of joining two unnamed accomplices in confronting his former employer in the 2800 block of West Augusta. Prosecutors said the victim wanted to get some tools back from Jasso-Perez. But when they met, Jasso-Perez allegedly pulled a knife and one of the other men pointed a gun at the victim’s head, prosecutors said.
“Tu estes muerto,” Spanish for “you are dead,” the gunman allegedly said to the victim before pulling the trigger. The gun jammed, likely saving the victim’s life. After clearing the fault, the gunman fired two shots into the ground and pistol-whipped the victim several times, prosecutors alleged. The victim received 23 stitches to close his wounds.
Aggravated battery by discharge of a firearm. Prosecutors told Kelly that Esteban Perez, 22, shot a 17-year-old woman in the leg after he accused her of stealing from him. At least two people identified him as the shooter, according to a CPD report.
Attempted robbery and aggravated battery. Michael Burkes, 61, is accused of knocking a 42-year-old woman to the ground and trying to take her phone on September 29 at the corner of State and Washington. Officials said the woman managed to hold on to her phone as Burkes ran away. away. While police were talking to the woman, a man came up, pointed at Burkes across the street and reported that Burkes had just spit on him, prosecutors said. The woman recognized Burkes as the would-be robber and police took him into custody, according to an arrest warrant.
Robbery. Police said a man was walking home in the 3400 block of North Halsted when a group of people pulled the strap on his bag, causing him to fall to the ground. The group ran away but returned to grab his bag, which contained keys, a phone and the victim’s wallet, according to a CPD report. As the perpetrators fled again, a member of the group, identified by prosecutors as 28-year-old Ali Ibrahim, stopped and punched the victim in the face. Police arrested Ibrahim two days later after they allegedly saw him punch another man in the mouth and hand, causing the victim to drop his phone, also on the 3400 block of North Halsted.
Editor’s note: Our detention rate data is based on non-domestic crimes filed at 26th and California, excluding suburban cases.
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