“I can’t maintain everyone in jail as a result of the State’s Lawyer desires 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 choose releasing Lawrence Reed, the person accused of setting a lady on fireplace aboard a Blue Line practice this week, on an ankle monitor, a court docket transcript reveals.
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 choose 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 mentioned. “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 right down to her workplace, and the sufferer was then taken to the emergency room.”
She was recognized with a corneal abrasion, a severe concussion, and a chipped tooth, Gumila mentioned.
MacNeal discharged Reed the following 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 stability.
“Hospital workers then confirmed she’s going to probably have optic nerve bruising primarily based on her eye ache, and the sufferer has additionally been experiencing complications and nausea each day and has been experiencing reminiscence points and loses her practice of thought when talking to folks,” Gumila informed the choose.
Gumila walked by Reed’s legal background, together with a 2020 arson fireplace he set on the Thompson Middle within the Loop, a number of different felonies, and a dozen misdemeanor convictions.
The prosecutor urged the choose to maintain Reed in custody, noting that the assault was caught on video and that the sufferer suffered “very severe accidents.”
“The defendant poses an actual and current risk to the security of, particularly this sufferer, whoever else was working within the hospital that day, and the group as an entire,” 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 consequently, suffered accidents so extreme that she nonetheless has unintended effects every day.”
“There’s 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, mentioned Reed was being saved at MacNeal longer than what the psychiatrist had initially informed him, “and his psychological sickness brought on him to get paranoid,” ensuing within the alleged assault. However, Yannias mentioned, “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 by this sickness for 26 years” and doesn’t work.
“He’s acquired three grown youngsters, ten grandchildren, they’re all very close-knit,” Yannias mentioned.
“Jail isn’t an asylum. This isn’t a spot to warehouse folks with psychological diseases,” Yannias argued, invoking a line of reasoning generally deployed by protection attorneys throughout detention hearings. “Mr. Reed wants providers, he doesn’t have to be incarcerated for being mentally ailing and appearing in accordance along with his psychological sickness.”
Judges who hear that argument often counter that the streets are additionally not secure locations for folks in disaster. Molina-Gonzalez, nevertheless, didn’t provide that counterpoint.
A court docket officer informed the choose that their evaluation of Reed’s danger to the group resulted in a “new violent legal exercise flag,” which means that if he have been to be launched and commit a brand new crime, it will probably be violent, in keeping with the transcript. As for the chance that he would commit a brand new crime in any respect, the officer mentioned he scored a “4 out of six.” The officer really useful “most situations” if the choose launched Reed.
Molina-Gonzalez walked by what she heard and concluded that prosecutors did not exhibit that jail was the one strategy to maintain the group secure. As an alternative, she mentioned she would put him on an ankle monitor.
Gumila, the prosecutor, objected.
“For the report, the Cook dinner County State’s Lawyer’s Workplace respectfully objects to the Order of Digital Monitoring primarily based on the intense nature of this legal offense and proof offered that tends to show that the Defendant is a risk to the bodily security of the sufferer and the group and our concern that the staffing essential to observe 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 choose.
“Thanks,” replied Molina-Gonzalez. “I perceive your place, however I can’t maintain everyone in jail as a result of the State’s Lawyer desires me to, however I perceive and respect your place.”
On Thursday, a spokesperson for the Cook dinner County State’s Lawyer’s Workplace mentioned Gumila’s objection has been normal coverage for the workplace since April 7 below State’s Lawyer Eileen O’Neill Burke.
“[Prosecutors] should object on the report each time a choose denies our detention request in violent or forcible felony instances, instances involving prohibited firearm modifications, ghost or defaced weapons, or detainable felonies on public transportation,” the spokesperson mentioned.
After overruling Gumila’s objection, the choose ordered Reed to avoid MacNeal Hospital, the hospital that had been treating his psychological sickness for 17 years.
“I need you to not go there except you’ve a medical emergency,” the choose mentioned.
“I’m gonna go elsewhere,” Reed responded.
She then positioned Reed on “the very best degree” of digital monitoring “due to your ridiculous legal historical past and prolonged legal historical past.” However the choose then watered down the “highest degree” by agreeing to permit Reed to depart his residence 40 hours every week, from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekdays.
Illinois’ so-called legal justice reform invoice, the SAFE-T Act, provides folks on digital monitoring permission to depart the home 16 hours every 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 quick 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 may “be capable to do church actions,” in keeping 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 girl with gasoline and setting her on fireplace aboard a Blue Line practice close to Clark-Lake at 9:25 p.m. on Monday, a time that was by no means inside a window both choose allowed him. The lady, officers mentioned Thursday, continues to battle 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.
