The Chainlink

Bobby Cann Updates: Ryne San Hamel Pleads Guilty, Receives 10 Days in Jail

Jason Jenkins at ActiveTrans is helping to coordinate community response.  If there is any chance you can attend proceedings, please reach out to him: 

jason@activetrans.org.

 

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So many concerns have been expressed about Anita Alverez as States Attorney with other cases e.g. Laquan McDonald. Sen. Durbin is endorsing Kim Foxx and the Chicago Tribune posted Eric Zorn's "The case against Anita Alvarez". 

I swear I wasn't going to post this here but, since you asked, please vote for Kim Foxx in the March 15th Democratic primary. ;^)

The State’s Attorney is the top law enforcement official in Cook County, and Anita Alvarez is the two-term incumbent. The biggest power of any prosecutor is the power to charge crimes. For example, Alvarez decided to wait 400 days to file charges against the officer who shot Laquan McDonald in the back 16 times, and Alvarez decided not to charge the officer who killed Rekia Boyd with murder, directly resulting in his acquittal. Kim Foxx would appoint a special prosecutor in police misconduct cases to avoid any conflict of interest.

Foxx is endorsed by the Cook County Democratic Party, the Tribune, the Sun-Times, the Daily Herald, the Defender, the Chicago Teacher’s Union, SEIU Illinois State Council, AFSME Council 31, Senator Dick Durbin, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, Congressman Luis Gutierrez, Congressman Danny Davis, Congressman Bobby Rush, State Senator Kwame Raoul, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, Commissioner Chuy Garcia, City Treasurer Kurt Summers, Alderman Joe Moore, Alderman John Arena, Jesse Jackson, Howard Dean’s Democracy for America, Moveon.org, Chicago NOW, the Sierra Club, and many others.

Anita Alvarez is backed by Mike Madigan, Ed Burke, and John Daley--leaders of the most powerful political machine families in Chicago. The Daley support is not surprising. Alvarez refused to file homicide charges against Daley’s nephew, who killed David Koschman. The nephew later was indicted by a special prosecutor and pleaded guilty. Foxx would pursue justice for all citizens of Cook County, not only those who are politically powerful.

Violent crime is out of control in Cook County. While other cities have seen steep declines in violence, homicides in Chicago have doubled since this time last year. Witnesses are afraid to come forward because they don’t trust the broken Cook County criminal justice system headed by Alvarez. Change is badly needed.

Foxx is uniquely qualified to reform the system. She was raised by a single mother in the notorious Cabrini-Green public housing complex and was homeless for a time, yet she graduated law school, served in the Public Guardian’s Office, and worked her way up to supervisor in the State’s Attorney’s Office. She also served as Chief of Staff for Toni Preckwinkle, where she was the point person for several important criminal justice reforms that saved countless tax-payer dollars. Foxx is committed to continuing her work to reform our justice system and would end the school-to-prison pipeline, giving kids a second chance at a better life.

Alvarez prosecutes low-level drug offenses and asks for high cash bails, even though judges routinely dismiss these cases. As a result, poor people (including children) sit in jail for months awaiting a trial that will never happen. This practice wastes a tremendous amount of tax-payer money and has significant social costs. If these low-level offenders had been released, they could’ve continued to go to school, go to work, and financially support their children. Foxx would not prosecute these low-level cases.

Alvarez has defended a large number of wrongful conviction cases resulting from coercive police interrogations--a national disgrace that has earned Chicago the title "Torture Capital of the U.S." The city pays out an average of $1 million a week settling claims against the police, money that would be better used to improve public schools and to prevent tax increases. Mayor Emanuel hired a former federal prosecutor to evaluate some of these claims, determined that several men were actually innocent, and asked Anita Alvarez to consider freeing them. She refused and, as a result, the Washington Post called Alvarez a perennial candidate for "Worst Prosecutor of the Year." Foxx realizes that wrongful convictions are a serious concern and would not systematically excuse bad conduct in past cases.

Alvarez accepts thousands of dollars in political donations from her employees. She appointed Dan Gallagher as her Civil Chief after he donated more than $13,000. Gallagher later was forced to resign after posting racist and misogynistic messages on social media. Gallagher referred to First Lady Obama as "Moosechelle" and used a vulgar epithet to describe Hillary Clinton. Kim Foxx would not accept political donations from employees of the State’s Attorney’s Office and would employ a diverse staff that respects all races and genders.

For the record, I wrote every word of this post myself and could have kept typing for a good while longer. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Maurice, thank you for your well thought out response and reply.  I haven't made up my mind yet who to vote for but you have been persuasive.

My concern was that Anita Alverez has not succumbed to the temptation of conceding to a plea bargain.  The series of hearings anticipating the trail of the killer of Bobby Cann has been going on for nearly three years now.  It's no longer in the mainstream news, there is a loss of interest.  But the state's attorney has been consistent in prosecuting this crime. 

Should she be recognized and given credit for this?

I would wager a large sum of money that Alvarez has had zero involvement in this case. She has almost 900 Assistant State's Attorneys who handle day to day matters like this without her involvement. Cook County is the second most populous in the country, so the person in charge of that has her hands full.

I completely agree. Thanks for posting this. 

What a relief. This is a good start.

https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20160315/little-village/anita-alvar...

This e-mail is to inform you that there is an upcoming court event involving the defendant Ryne Sanhamel and case number 13CR1355001.

A hearing has been scheduled for 3/11/2016 at 10:00 AM. This will take place in Circuit Court 127, located at the following address: 2600 South California Ave, Chicago, IL .

Please be aware that there are often multiple cases set on a particular date in this court. The case you are involved in may not be reached on the scheduled day. You may want to check for updates to this information by periodically calling the VINE service or visiting www.vinelink.com.

For more information, contact the county clerk's office.

Thank you,

Cook County Automated Victim Notification System

Some good news in the update on the case (from the Facebook "Ride on Bobby" page):

Thanks to Jason Jenkins of Active Transportation Alliance for the following update from court last Friday:

"As you may recall at the previous hearing the Attorney General's office had made a motion to quash the subpoena calling the Judge who signed the warrant to testify. Friday's hearing was to hear arguments and rule on that motion. The presiding Judge ruled against that motion on Friday so things should move forward with testimony from the signing Judge and officers who handled the warrant. There is a brief hearing scheduled for 3/24 which will only be to coordinate schedules for the Judge who has to testify and set the date for testimony, which probably won't happen until late April or maybe even May."

Looks like Ms. Alvarez's goose is cooked.
#ByeAnita

This e-mail is to inform you that there is an upcoming court event involving the defendant Ryne Sanhamel and case number 13CR1355001.

A hearing has been scheduled for 3/24/2016 at 10:00 AM. This will take place in Circuit Court 127, located at the following address: 2600 South California Ave, Chicago, IL .

Please be aware that there are often multiple cases set on a particular date in this court. The case you are involved in may not be reached on the scheduled day. You may want to check for updates to this information by periodically calling the VINE service or visiting www.vinelink.com.

For more information, contact the county clerk's office.

Thank you,

Cook County Automated Victim Notification System

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-courthouse-loc...

This isn't scheduled to start until April 1, but it could affect those attending these hearings:

Public storage lockers are going to be removed from the Leighton Criminal Court Building and suburban Cook County courthouses because, in part, people have been storing drugs there, authorities said.

The lockers are being abused and present their own security problems "as courthouse patrons have placed contraband in them, placing staff members at risk when they engage the individuals about the illegal items," according to a statement from Chief Judge Tim Evans' office.

The lockers were in the spotlight in 2013 after a ban took effect on smartphones, computer tablets and other electronic devices at the 26th Street and California Avenue courthouse — the busiest in the country. The free storage lockers have offered members of the public doing business at the courthouse a place to temporarily stash those banned items.

For anyone interested in attending future hearings, please note:

"The Circuit Court of Cook County is alerting the public that effective April 2, 2016, the Cook County Department of Facilities Management will no longer provide storage lockers for the public to store banned items at courthouses. This includes the Leighton Criminal Court Building, at 26th Street and California Avenue, where smartphones have been banned for the past 3 years."

Full article at http://iln.isba.org/blog/2016/03/18/smartphone-lockers-be-removed-l...

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