The person convicted of tossing root beer within the face of former Cook dinner County State’s Legal professional Kim Foxx was sentenced to a yr of probation on Monday, bringing to an finish a case that critics say highlighted the county’s two-tiered justice system, during which some victims seem to carry a premier standing.
William Swetz, 35, was convicted of aggravated battery in a public place on November 17 after a bench trial earlier than Choose Tiana Blakely. On the identical time, the decide discovered him not responsible of aggravated assault with a motorcar.
The Illinois Legal professional Normal’s Workplace dealt with the prosecution throughout Swetz’s two-day trial on the Markham courthouse.
Foxx, who was strolling alongside the sting of the roadway throughout her common morning stroll in June 2024, informed police that Swetz yelled, “Get the f**** off the highway, b****!” She responded by flipping him off.
Swetz allegedly drove a brief distance, then put his truck in reverse and zigzagged towards her within the reverse lane, inflicting her to leap onto the curb to keep away from being hit. When he stopped, the 2 exchanged extra phrases earlier than Swetz allegedly hurled the contents of his Massive Gulp cup into her face.
Throughout opening statements, Assistant Legal professional Normal Suzanne Collins informed Blakely that Swetz “used his pickup truck and a full cup of soda pop for exacting revenge on Ms. Foxx.”
However Assistant Public Defender Michael Herzog, a supervisor within the Felony Trial Division, argued the case amounted to a misdemeanor reasonably than a felony.
“Choose, we’re right here primarily as a result of there are outsized expenses,” Herzog argued. “That is a few second of mutual anger between two adults… a verbal altercation that briefly escalated to an offensive contact, battery of the misdemeanor type.”
Along with probation, Swetz might be required to submit DNA to a regulation enforcement database, in response to court docket information.
Many throughout the county’s judicial system questioned the choice to pursue felony expenses for tossing a drink on somebody, an act that may usually be handled as a misdemeanor in Cook dinner County.
For instance, simply eight days after Swetz was convicted, a person named Marlon Miller struck a lady within the face with a Potbelly cup full of a milkshake within the Loop. CPD officers who interviewed the lady reported that she couldn’t absolutely open her proper eye afterward. Prosecutors charged Miller solely with misdemeanor battery.
Two days earlier than Swetz was convicted, Miller allegedly slapped a lady within the face inside a Dunkin’ close to the Howard CTA station. In that incident, he was additionally charged with a misdemeanor.
In August, Foxx, who left workplace in December 2024, up to date her LinkedIn profile outlining themes for her subsequent chapter as a “collaborative trailblazer.” Amongst her acknowledged targets was a need to “construct programs of accountability that aren’t punitive, however transformational.”
“What if we turned keen, strategically and morally, to soak up some hurt in service of a higher good?” she wrote.
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