“I can’t maintain all people in jail as a result of the State’s Lawyer needs me to.”
These 13 phrases might linger within the thoughts of Cook dinner County Decide Teresa Molina-Gonzalez for a protracted, very long time. As a result of that’s what she informed a Cook dinner County assistant state’s legal professional on August 22 when the prosecutor objected to the decide releasing Lawrence Reed, the person accused of setting a lady on hearth aboard a Blue Line prepare this week, on an ankle monitor, a court docket transcript exhibits.
She launched Reed on the ankle monitor after a prosecutor, hauntingly, looking back, warned that digital monitoring “couldn’t shield the sufferer or the group from one other vicious, random, and spontaneous assault.”
Within the minutes earlier than Molina-Gonzalez rejected the state’s detention petition for Reed, Assistant State’s Lawyer Jerrilyn Gumila informed the decide that the 50-year-old Reed had knocked a social employee unconscious contained in the locked psychiatric wing of MacNeal Hospital within the west suburbs.
As a surveillance digital camera recorded every part, the social employee was talking with Reed on the nurse’s station round 10:20 a.m. on August 19 when he “grew to become irate and slapped the sufferer within the face with an open palm,” Gumila stated. “Her imaginative and prescient went black and she or he misplaced consciousness for a number of seconds. One of many sufferer’s co-workers rushed over and helped the sufferer stroll all the way down to her workplace, and the sufferer was then taken to the emergency room.”
She was recognized with a corneal abrasion, a critical concussion, and a chipped tooth, Gumila stated.
MacNeal discharged Reed the subsequent day into police custody.
The sufferer returned to the emergency room on August 21, two days after the assault, as a result of she was nonetheless experiencing excessive nausea, extreme head and eye ache, and problem with steadiness.
“Hospital employees then confirmed she is going to probably have optic nerve bruising based mostly on her eye ache, and the sufferer has additionally been experiencing complications and nausea every day and has been experiencing reminiscence points and loses her prepare of thought when talking to individuals,” Gumila informed the decide.
Gumila walked via Reed’s prison background, together with a 2020 arson hearth he set on the Thompson Middle within the Loop, a number of different felonies, and a dozen misdemeanor convictions.
The prosecutor urged the decide to maintain Reed in custody, noting that the assault was caught on video and that the sufferer suffered “very critical accidents.”
“The defendant poses an actual and current menace to the protection of, particularly this sufferer, whoever else was working within the hospital that day, and the group as a complete,” Gumila continued. “The defendant randomly and spontaneously grew to become irate on this scenario the place the sufferer was simply trying to do her job as a social employee, and now in consequence, suffered accidents so extreme that she nonetheless has negative effects every day.”
“There may be nothing right here indicating that the defendant was provoked, this was a random act, your Honor, and digital monitoring can be wholly inadequate. It couldn’t shield the sufferer or the group from one other vicious, random, and spontaneous assault.”
Reed’s public defender, Nicholas Yannias, stated Reed was being saved at MacNeal longer than what the psychiatrist had initially informed him, “and his psychological sickness induced him to get paranoid,” ensuing within the alleged assault. However, Yannias stated, “he’s now on correct ranges of the drugs he’s on, and that has gotten him to a a lot better place. He has been going to MacNeal for 17 years.”
Reed, Yannias added, had been “working via this sickness for 26 years” and doesn’t work.
“He’s acquired three grown youngsters, ten grandchildren, they’re all very close-knit,” Yannias stated.
“Jail will not be an asylum. This isn’t a spot to warehouse individuals with psychological sicknesses,” Yannias argued, invoking a line of reasoning generally deployed by protection attorneys throughout detention hearings. “Mr. Reed wants companies, he doesn’t must be incarcerated for being mentally unwell and performing in accordance together with his psychological sickness.”
Judges who hear that argument often counter that the streets are additionally not secure locations for individuals in disaster. Molina-Gonzalez, nonetheless, didn’t provide that counterpoint.
A court docket officer informed the decide that their evaluation of Reed’s danger to the group resulted in a “new violent prison exercise flag,” which means that if he had been to be launched and commit a brand new crime, it could probably be violent, in line with the transcript. As for the chance that he would commit a brand new crime in any respect, the officer stated he scored a “4 out of six.” The officer beneficial “most situations” if the decide launched Reed.
Molina-Gonzalez walked via what she heard and concluded that prosecutors didn’t exhibit that jail was the one technique to maintain the group secure. As an alternative, she stated she would put him on an ankle monitor.
Gumila, the prosecutor, objected.
“For the file, the Cook dinner County State’s Lawyer’s Workplace respectfully objects to the Order of Digital Monitoring based mostly on the intense nature of this prison offense and proof offered that tends to show that the Defendant is a menace to the bodily security of the sufferer and the group and our concern that the staffing essential to watch the Defendant and make sure the Defendant’s return to custody within the occasion the Defendant absconds from Digital Monitoring can be insufficient,” she informed the decide.
“Thanks,” replied Molina-Gonzalez. “I perceive your place, however I can’t maintain all people in jail as a result of the State’s Lawyer needs me to, however I perceive and respect your place.”
On Thursday, a spokesperson for the Cook dinner County State’s Lawyer’s Workplace stated Gumila’s objection has been commonplace coverage for the workplace since April 7 beneath State’s Lawyer Eileen O’Neill Burke.
“[Prosecutors] should object on the file every time a decide denies our detention request in violent or forcible felony circumstances, circumstances involving prohibited firearm modifications, ghost or defaced weapons, or detainable felonies on public transportation,” the spokesperson stated.
After overruling Gumila’s objection, the decide ordered Reed to keep away from MacNeal Hospital, the hospital that had been treating his psychological sickness for 17 years.
“I would like you to not go there except you might have a medical emergency,” the decide stated.
“I’m gonna go someplace else,” Reed responded.
She then positioned Reed on “the best stage” of digital monitoring “due to your ridiculous prison historical past and prolonged prison historical past.” However the decide then watered down the “highest stage” by agreeing to permit Reed to go away his dwelling 40 hours per week, from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekdays.
Illinois’ so-called prison justice reform invoice, the SAFE-T Act, offers individuals on digital monitoring permission to go away the home 16 hours per week for “important” actions. With out offering any rationalization, Molina-Gonzalez gave Reed these 16 hours plus 24 extra to roam the streets.
Lower than a month later, on September 12, Reed was again in court docket for a follow-up look earlier than Decide Ralph Meczyk. Throughout that brief session, protection legal professional Yannias requested Meczyk to regulate Reed’s permitted hours outdoors the house.
A deacon affiliated with Reed’s “transitional housing” requested for the hours to be modified so Reed might “be capable to do church actions,” in line with a transcript of the listening to.
Meczyk agreed, permitting Reed to stroll freely from 10 a.m. to five p.m. on Tuesdays, 11 a.m. to eight p.m. on Saturdays, and eight a.m. to three p.m. on Sundays.
Reed is accused of dousing a 26-year-old lady with gasoline and setting her on hearth aboard a Blue Line prepare close to Clark-Lake at 9:25 p.m. on Monday, a time that was by no means inside a window both decide allowed him. The lady, officers stated Thursday, continues to struggle for her life at Stroger Hospital.
Federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged Reed with committing a terrorist act or act of violence on mass transportation. He’s scheduled to seem for a federal detention listening to on Friday.
This story is predicated on official transcripts of the proceedings bought by CWBChicago with the assistance of our subscribers. You’ll be able to assist our work right here.
