Man gets probation for having gun, drug stash in West Loop tent city

CHICAGO — West Loop residents and aldermen labored for months to get town to filter homeless encampments that turned entrenched underneath viaducts within the ward, saying that they had change into catalysts for shootings and drug dealing. They finally had some success, however the course of was fairly gradual.

One of many first indicators of success got here in late November final 12 months when Chicago police arrested a person in a tent metropolis close to the Clinton CTA station after he allegedly bought medication to an undercover cop.

Inside a tent the person was allegedly dealing from, police allegedly discovered a backpack containing a firearm with an prolonged journal hooked up and baggies of heroin and crack. In court docket data, police stated they discovered almost three-quarters of a pound of heroin value $52,875 and $8,610 value of crack. In addition they recovered about 5 ounces of liquid codeine and $1,188 in money, in keeping with the court docket filings.

Amongst different felonies, prosecutors charged the accused man, 19-year-old Tailon Appleton, with armed violence, a Class X felony carrying a minimal six-year sentence with no probability for probation upon conviction. In court docket the subsequent morning, prosecutors requested a choose to maintain him in jail pending trial, saying he was a public security risk. As a substitute, Choose Maryam Ahmad despatched him dwelling on an ankle monitor.

That didn’t sit properly with Ald. Invoice Conway (thirty fourth).

“The choose selecting to launch the defendant is stunning,” Conway stated on Twitter upon studying of the choice. “The SAFE-T act wasn’t the problem, it permits detention right here.”

If Conway was upset that Appleton was despatched dwelling after being arrested, he may need to sit down to listen to the sentence Appleton obtained final week: probation.

Appleton pleaded responsible to unlawful gun possession and manufacture-delivery of fentanyl, a part of an settlement he labored out with prosecutors. The state dropped that Class X felony within the deal.

Choose Laura Ayala-Gonzalez sentenced him to 2 years of probation and 30 hours of group service. She additionally imposed a number of different necessities, together with that Appleton get hold of a GED, utterly keep away from alcohol and medicines, and take part in programming.