Name: Two charities have bailed scores of felony defendants out of Cook County Jail. Some were soon charged with new crimes.
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Two charities have bailed scores of felony defendants out of Cook County Jail. Some were soon charged with new crimes.

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AdvertisementBy Chicago TribuneApr 29, 2020 at 6:55 amProsecutors charged 34-year-old Christopher Stewart with being an armed habitual criminal last year after the four-time felon was allegedly caught illegally carrying a handgun.At the time, Stewart’s ex-girlfriend had obtained an order of protection, saying that just days earlier he had shot a pistol into the ground at her 6-year-old son’s birthday party and threatened to kill her. “I should pop you right now bitch,” he shouted, according to her filing.AdvertisementA charity called The Bail Project posted $5,000 in cash to release Stewart from Cook County Jail. A month later, Stewart was charged with attempted murder after he allegedly set fire to the ex-girlfriend’s apartment while she was inside. Police rescued her as she hung out of a kitchen window.During the last three years, The Bail Project and a second nonprofit — the Chicago Community Bond Fund — have paid to release nearly 1,000 pretrial defendants from Cook County Jail. The groups are part of well-funded, nationwide efforts to eliminate cash bail as a condition of pretrial release and ensure poor people are not jailed for criminal charges simply because they cannot afford bond. AdvertisementThe charities contend that the risk to public safety of releasing pretrial detainees is minimal. Many defendants they bailed out were charged with misdemeanors, and the two groups say they have near universal success in helping released defendants abide by court orders and stay out of trouble.The charities declined to identify the people they have bonded out, citing their organizations’ privacy policies.But through public records, Tribune reporters were able to identify 162 people charged with felonies whom the charities have bailed out since February 2017. Among them were three people charged with murder, 10 accused of attempted murder, 32 felons allegedly caught carrying a gun and 22 defendants charged with being an armed habitual criminal — a person who has at least two convictions for certain types of dangerous or serious felonies and is then caught with a gun.More than a fifth of these 162 defendants went on to be charged with new crimes while out on charity-sponsored bond, the Tribune’s investigation found. Because gun violence continues to plague Chicago neighborhoods, with homicides up 34% and shootings up 27% by mid-March compared with the same time last year, the Tribune also examined all felony gun bonds of $5,000 or above from October 2019 through February. The charities posted bond for more than a quarter of these defendants — a total of 50 such bonds.Amid the coronavirus crisis, which has killed six jail detainees and infected nearly 500 as of Monday, the two charities have accelerated their efforts by funding the release of at least 200 defendants in recent weeks. The Community Bond Fund also joined other advocates to file a pending federal lawsuit demanding the immediate and wholesale release of Cook County detainees, saying the virus puts all inmates at grave risk.Mayor Lori Lightfoot responded in a court filing that mass release of jail detainees could place Chicago residents “at an increased risk of being the victims of serious crimes.” For now, a federal judge has ruled that jail officials should increase testing of detainees and enforce social distancing in the institution.Chicago crime victims interviewed by the Tribune said they did not know that charitable organizations had paid to bond out the people accused of attacking them and others.AdvertisementFor example, the Chicago Community Bond Fund put up $10,000 in bond money in October to release Kavell Buchanan while he was awaiting trial on charges of driving a stolen car. Then 18, Buchanan had served time in juvenile detention for three separate aggravated batteries and a robbery.Two months after the charity bailed him out, Buchanan was arrested after he allegedly indicated he had a gun while trying to steal a man’s PlayStation 4 Console.The victim, Enkhbat Batgerel, said he was stunned that the Chicago Community Bond Fund had bailed out Buchanan on the previous stolen vehicle charge. “By a charity? That’s mind-blowing,” Batgerel said. “Do they know his rap sheet, his history, before giving him that type of help?”The Chicago Community Bond Fund also paid $5,000 in February 2019 to bail out Izarious Cannon, who had allegedly stuck a gun in the face of a supermarket worker and threatened to shoot him if he did not hand over his money and iPhone, records show.“I am still afraid two years later,” said Milton Berrezueta, whom Cannon allegedly robbed in August 2018. “It’s not good for a charity to free someone, because he’s just going to hurt someone else. It’s awful.”Cannon went on to be charged in separate felony cases with driving a stolen car and possessing ammunition, and delivery of cocaine and fentanyl. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges and awaits trial on drug charges as well as the earlier armed robbery charge.AdvertisementWhile not directly addressing specific cases cited by the Tribune, the two charities said the newspaper was highlighting examples with poor outcomes. The groups’ efforts, they say, are beginning to reverse a historic racial injustice by assisting many people of color who are presumed innocent but cannot afford bond. The charities say their aim is to level the judicial playing field by making it possible for these released defendants to care for their families, return to their jobs and prepare their defenses.In Tribune interviews, leaders of both charities said they were transparent with the public and donors about the serious felony charges facing many of the detainees they bail out.Matthew McFarland, a regional operations manager for The Bail Project, said: “I think we represent ourselves accurately. How we represent our efforts and mission are very clear. The message is to help people too poor to pay their own bail.“We’re charge agnostic,” McFarland added. “We are operating off the presumption of innocence.”“I think that we are forthright. We’re very clear whenever we’re asked that we don’t make distinctions based on charge,” said Sharlyn Grace, executive director of the Chicago Community Bond Fund.“Also, many of the charges sound much more concerning to the public than they are in reality, right?” Grace added. “The charge does not mean the person is a threat. The charge does not tell the story of who the person is and it should not be the sole determining factor in how they’re treated pretrial.”AdvertisementBoth civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson and businessman and political candidate Willie Wilson have been bailing out Cook County Jail detainees for years. But both said in Tribune interviews that they specifically exclude people charged with violent felonies or crimes with guns.“Society would not appreciate that. That would not be acceptable,” Jackson said.Said Wilson: “I’m not comfortable helping someone charged with rape or other violence.”Tapping a broad range of donors that include established foundations and religious groups, the Chicago Community Bond Fund and The Bail Project both rent office space in a storefront at 601 S. California Ave. called the Westside Center for Justice.The two charities share the goal of eliminating cash bail, and they coordinate which bonds to pay so they don’t duplicate cases. But they have distinct histories.Since its founding in 2015, the Chicago Community Bond Fund has worked exclusively in Cook County and says it has paid about $1.8 million to post bond for more than 300 people. The group’s website refers to bail as “ransom money ... just a stopgap in an unjust and racist system.”AdvertisementThe Bail Project is a larger national organization that since 2018 has used $23 million to bond out defendants in 21 jurisdictions, including Tulsa, Oklahoma, St. Louis and San Diego. It was only in the past year that The Bail Project turned its focus to Chicago. Since then, it has bonded out more than 600 Cook County Jail detainees, posting $2.16 million in bail money.“With the largest single-site jail in the United States, the possibility of statewide reform, and pretrial electronic surveillance on the rise, Chicago is a key battleground for the future of pretrial justice in America,” the group’s 2019 annual report stated.The Tribune discovered the charities’ increasing role in bailing out felony defendants as part of the newspaper’s ongoing reporting on Cook County’s bond reform initiatives championed by Chief Judge Timothy Evans and Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.Starting in 2017, the courts have lowered or eliminated cash bail for many criminal defendants and dramatically lowered the jail population. The Tribune reported in February that a major study commissioned by Evans to support the reforms had flaws that charged with murder and other violent crimes while out on bail.Both charities have roundly supported these reforms.To explore the impact of those reforms, reporters first combed through paper records on thousands of felony bonds of $5,000 cash or above during an eight-month period last year — from February through September — then gathered and analyzed all bonds of those amounts from similar periods in 2017 and 2018 for comparison purposes.AdvertisementBails requiring bonds in those amounts are set for people with the most serious charges and backgrounds — though a small percentage are held without bond while awaiting trial. The reporters also analyzed all felony gun bonds of $5,000 or above from October 2019 through February.From those records, the Tribune was able to identify the 162 felony defendants with bonds of $5,000 cash or above who were bailed out by the two charities since February 2017. Reporters then reviewed thousands of pages of police and court documents on those cases, and interviewed released defendants, victims and officials.Even though the larger national Bail Project started working in Cook County only in May of last year, it was responsible for releasing about half of those 162 detainees, the Tribune found.The charities note that it is judges who determine whether a person is a danger to the community and should be denied bail. “We are not the ones setting the bail,” McFarland said.Both say they have more than 90% success in helping released defendants abide by court orders and stay out of trouble.The Chicago Community Bond Fund provides referrals to other service agencies once a detainee is released, Grace said. “We’re there to be supportive to the extent that it is needed and wanted. ... We absolutely don’t want to be re-creating some kind of supervision that they’re already under through the courts,” she said.AdvertisementThe Bail Project said the charity offers freed defendants transportation to the courthouse for hearings and refers them to agencies that provide housing, drug treatment, mental health counseling and employment.Stewart, writing from the Cook County Jail where he awaits trial in the attempted murder of his ex-girlfriend, describes The Bail Project’s help as “the best thing that ever happened to me.“But, he added, "I messed it up.” The Bail Project told him the condition for being released “was to get a job ... go to school and to stay out of trouble and make sure you go to all your court days,” Stewart recalled.That didn’t happen, Stewart wrote. Now he feels “bad for violating their trust because my intentions was to get out of jail and do the right thing and stuff.”Stewart’s ex-girlfriend expressed disgust when she learned from a reporter that a charity had posted bond for Stewart.“They need to do better if they are going to have a charity bail people out,” she said. "That’s wasting money that could have gone to someone who would have done right by it.”AdvertisementJailed last June on a charge of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, Maurio Young said he was delighted when a fellow detainee passed along a business card from The Bail Project. Young recalled how a charity “bail disruptor” interviewed him. "She asked me a lot of things. They had programs set up to rehabilitate you,” he said. “Four days later I was home.”Four months after The Bail Project paid his $5,000 bond, Young was arrested again on charges of trafficking in methamphetamine and cocaine.The 22-year-old declined to discuss his pending cases but recounted felony convictions that began in 2016 when he pointed a loaded pistol in the face of a man on Oak Street Beach. Young pulled the trigger twice, but the gun misfired. “I thank God every day that it didn’t go off,” said Young, who was sentenced to a year in prison.Prior to last year’s arrest, Young also had pleaded guilty to drug charges in DeKalb and Cook counties. He is on probation.Young praised The Bail Project, saying it offered to help him get his state identification card and to possibly help him get a job. “It never happened," he acknowledged. “I was out and I kept backtracking.”Posting bond for people charged with violent crimes might not meet the popular definition of charity. But the IRS in 1976 ruled that it was acceptable for a tax-exempt nonprofit to pay bonds for people accused of crimes, as part of broad efforts to rehabilitate them.AdvertisementIn their annual reports, media appearances and fundraising pleas, the two bail charities describe jail detainees they have released, highlighting people awaiting trial for nonviolent misdemeanors.In its 2019 year-end report, for example, the Chicago Community Bond Fund profiled four individuals it bailed out of Cook County Jail: a mother arrested while picking up her 8-year-old son at school, a young woman who was four months from completing her medical training, a father of 5-year-old twins who had a pacemaker and had undergone two triple-bypass heart surgeries, and a skilled tradesman arrested in front of his family. Their charges were not described.The Bail Project has described freeing incarcerated mothers, political protesters and people charged with minor offenses such as riding a bicycle on the sidewalk.The Bond Fund, which reported receiving about $675,000 in 2018, lists roughly a dozen donors on its annual reports, but Grace said they give to support the organization’s back-office and staff, not to directly pay bail bonds.Grace said the pool of money used for bonds comes from small individual donors and also “several large gifts” from anonymous donors whose identities are shielded even from her.“We don’t have their names,” Grace said. “They come through money managers or ... stock donations. ... We’re required on tax documents to name the people whose identities we have, but there’s other people whose identities we don’t have.”AdvertisementLike the Chicago Community Bond Fund, some of The Bail Project’s largest donors are listed as “anonymous.” Among those identified are New York hedge fund investor Michael Novogratz, British billionaire Richard Branson and New York music industry executive Jason Flom.Also among the financial supporters of The Bail Project was the family foundation of former Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner — which did not respond to a request for comment.Experts in charitable giving said philanthropies should be cautious and transparent when they undertake missions that could put communities at risk.“I think there’s a very clear difference between bailing out somebody charged with riding their bicycle on the sidewalk and bailing out somebody charged with an offense involving a gun, especially if they have prior convictions,” said Princeton University professor Peter Singer, who has written two books about the ethics of philanthropy. “I can think of better things to do with your charitable dollar."Jackson said that he and his organization, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, have been posting bail for nonviolent defendants for about 25 years.“It’s year ’round for us,” he said.AdvertisementJackson said the sheriff’s office provides a list to Rainbow/PUSH of defendants too poor to post bail. “We always ask the sheriff to do vetting,” he said.Asked if there were types of defendants he will not bail out, he said: “Of course, that’s true. You have to make a judgment.”Wilson said he also worked with the sheriff’s office, which provided a list of defendants who met Wilson’s criteria. “A lot of the people I helped were in jail for marijuana or for stealing food to eat,” he said.Told that The Bail Project and the Chicago Community Bond Fund charities are bailing out defendants charged with felony armed robberies, Wilson said: “Everybody has their own conscience. I’m not saying I’m right and they’re wrong. But I use my own money and they use someone else’s. That’s a big difference.”West suburban Lyons police Chief Thomas Herion said he was “sickened” to learn from a reporter recently that serial home burglar Thomas Lugo last year was released with $5,000 from The Bail Project. Lugo is listed on the state’s sex offender registry as a “sexual predator,” and police and court records describe him as an admitted drug addict who repeatedly broke into people’s homes, even when they were present.“He’s a sex offender who will break into individuals’ homes,” Herion said. “All the hard work you do in trying to keep the public safe ...”AdvertisementThe Bail Project paid for Lugo’s release after he was accused of breaking into the Lyons home of Daniel Gutierrez, a Midway Airport grounds operation worker. Gutierrez had installed a home security camera so he could check on his wife as she underwent chemotherapy treatments for cancer.A month after her December 2018 death, Lugo allegedly broke into the home and was caught on camera rifling through the home to steal her jewelry, according to police reports.“The camera caught him perfectly," said Gutierrez, who added that he was devastated because his wife’s necklaces and other jewelry had sentimental value to him.While out on the charity-sponsored bail bond, Lugo was charged with breaking into a woman’s car in Berwyn.Lugo is now in prison while he awaits trial on two burglary cases and a parole violation. He did not respond to a letter sent to the prison seeking comment.Told by a reporter that a charity had bailed out Lugo, Gutierrez said: "He keeps doing the same crimes over and over again. It just doesn’t make any sense.”Advertisementdyjackson@chicagotribune.comtlighty@chicagotribune.comgmarx@chicagotribune.com Advertisement

AdvertisementBy Chicago TribuneApr 29, 2020 at 6:55 amProsecutors charged 34-year-old Christopher Stewart with being an armed habitual criminal last year after the four-time felon was allegedly caught illegally carrying a handgun.At the time, Stewart’s ex-girlfriend had obtained an order of protection, saying that just days earlier he had shot a pistol into the ground at her 6-year-old son’s birthday party and threatened to kill her. “I should pop you right now bitch,” he shouted, according to her filing.AdvertisementA charity called The Bail Project posted $5,000 in cash to release Stewart...

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The Chicago Tribune is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television are named), it remains the most-read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region. It had the 6th highest circulation for American newspapers in 2017.

Two charities have bailed scores of felony defendants out of Cook County Jail. Some were soon charged with new crimes.

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