Posted on July 29, 2012 in Hit and Run

Sergio Nava, 51, was ordered to be held on $150,000 bond after being charged with leaving the scene of an accident that caused an injury, driving without a license and several other traffic-related crimes. The victim, whose name was not released by police, was left in critical condition with injuries that included brain hemorrhaging, as well as bruised lungs and fractured ribs.Nevawas driving a minivan. The 53 year old victim was on foot.

The Chicago Tribune reported that witnesses told police they saw Nava, in an attempt to go around another vehicle, swerve his van and hit the victim, who was walking his bicycle at the time. The impact of being hit with the van propelled the victim into the air. Neva drove off in his van but then turned around and drove by the scene again before permanently leaving the scene. Neva claims that he saw the victim fall but didn’t think he had hit him.

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 Posted on July 26, 2012 in Criminal Defense

A 31 year old man is in critical condition after being shot in the back several times. One of those bullets just missed the victim’s spine. Police say that the victim’s girlfriend walked outside of her house and saw him being held with a gun pointed to his head by a man she later identified as Christopher Boyd, 30. She begged Boyd to let her boyfriend go and he lifted the gun away. As the victim began to run into the house, Boyd began shooting at him.

According to a report on CBS Chicago, police received a tip later in the day from someone who claimed that the person who committed the shooting was hiding out in a nearby home. Police received permission from the residents of the house to enter and search inside. As police were looking around, they noticed paint chips falling from the ceiling. They could also hear movement coming from upstairs in the attic. When they looked in the attic, there was Boyd, attempting to hide. He complied when told by officers to come down from the attic and was arrested.

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 Posted on July 24, 2012 in DUI/DWI

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that former Lake County Chief Judge David Hall was found not guilty of DUI charges that arose from his April 2008 arrest in Vernon Hills. However, Hall, who now suffers from Lou Gehrig’s disease, which caused his retirement earlier this month, was found guilty of resisting arrest in a manner that caused the arresting office to spray him with pepper spray. Hall received the minimum sentence of 100 hours of community service, 18 months of conditional discharge, which is a form of probation, a $1,000 fine, and court costs.

In this case, Hall was taken to the hospital following the 2008 traffic stop when he complained of chest pains after being pepper-sprayed. A doctor who examined him at the hospital testified that he appeared intoxicated at the time of the incident. However, a blood sample that was drawn at the time of the incident was thrown out of evidence by the court on allegations that the sample had been mishandled. Therefore, this case contained no blood alcohol content test levels, which is usually standard evidence in a DUI case.

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 Posted on July 21, 2012 in DUI/DWI

According to an article in the Chicago Tribune, the Riverside police have cracked the case about a car crash that left one man from Woodbridge dead and one woman from Cicero slightly injured. Back on December 7^th of 2011, Magali Padilla, 24, and Cesar Ramirez, 26, were on their way home from dinner. Police supposed that from the scene of the crash, the 2003 Mercury Mountaineer was moving at a high rate of speed when it hit a curb and proceeded to roll over multiple times. The force of the crash ended up ejecting Ramirez from the vehicle as the SUV came to a halt on someone’s front lawn.

When police arrived at the scene they noticed a strong smell of alcohol from both Padilla and Ramirez. Padilla was given a breathalyzer test and registered a .017, which is two times the legal limit in Illinois. Both Padilla and Ramirez were transported to Loyola University Medical Center where Ramirez was pronounced deceased shortly after arrival. Yet from the date of the crash up to July 7^th of this year the authorities in Riverside were not sure if they could charge anyone.

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 Posted on July 18, 2012 in Theft

62-year-old Delfino Mora of the 6000 block of North Washtenaw was collecting cans to support his 12 children when he was beaten to death. He was attacked on the 6300 block of North Artesian Avenue early Tuesday morning, the 10^th of July. A man discovered him three hours after his beating with blood streaming out of his nostrils and vomit by his head. When authorities found him he was unconscious but still breathing. He was beaten so badly that he died the next day from blunt force head trauma. A doctor at St. Francis Hospital in Evanston pronounced him dead at 3:30 on Wednesday.

A week after the attack occurred, Chicago police had started piecing together what happened to Mora. The attack was recorded on a cell phone and that video ended up being posted to one of the attacker’s Facebook page. 16-year-old Malik Jones was identified in the video by someone who passed on the video until it reached the victim’s son. It was then that the police were notified of this video and Malik, who authorities say is a gang member, was taken into custody. He faces being charged as an adult with murder in the first degree. Jones was with two of his friends, Nicholas Ayala, 17, and Anthony Malcolm, 18, who took turns filming the attack. They also have charges brought againstthem for their involvement.

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 Posted on July 15, 2012 in Theft

Joseph Palmisano was receiving an awful lot of packages from Hong Kong. All these deliveries caught the attention of the Department of Homeland Security. It caught enough of their attention that they began an investigation that has resulted in Palmisano’s arrest.

Palmisano, of Bartlett, is currently being held on $25,000 bond.

According to Bartlett Police Commander Michael McGuigan, authorities found an estimated 90,000 DVD’s at Palmisano’s home. In an interview with WGN News, McGuigan said that there were boxes of DVD’s that went from the floor to the ceiling in both the garage and living room of the house. He described little pathways that Palmisano had made to walk through.

Prosecutors are alleging that the DVD’s are all pirated copies of movies that were made in Asia. They are accusing Palmisano of selling the DVD’s online, and claim he made $220,000 selling the illegal products. They claim that the DVD’s included films, HBO programs and other television shows.

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 Posted on July 12, 2012 in Disorderly Conduct

Tevin Louis, 19, is being held on $1 million bond. He has been charged with one count of first-degree murder, two counts of armed robbery and one count of disorderly conduct in the shooting death of 19-year-old Marquise Sampson. But Louis did not fire the gun that killed Sampson. Police did.

According to a report in the Chicago Sun Times, prosecutors told Judge Laura Sullivan that Louis and Sampson, armed with guns and wearing masks and gloves, robbed two employees at King Gyros. It is alleged that after taking money from the store’s cash register, they also took cash and a cell phone from the two employees, as well as cigarettes from the store’s inventory. The victims told police that the stolen items were thrown into a backpack, which Louis took with him when he left the store, and that Sampson left right after.

Sampson was spotted running by Gresham district by beat patrol officers. The officers reported that they ordered Sampson, who they say was holding onto his side while running, to stop. Instead, he kept running, with the uniformed officers chasing him. Sampson then pulled a gun and pointed it at one of the officers. The officer shot him twice. Sampson was later pronounced dead at the scene. The coroner has ruled the death a homicide. None of the officers present were injured.

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 Posted on July 10, 2012 in Criminal Defense

According to a story in the Chicago Tribune, the city’s ongoing efforts to revitalize its tourism industry might be damaged by the crime wave that is hitting the neighborhoods. Don Welsh, president and chief executive officer of Choose Chicago, told the Tribune that he hopes the crime wave is contained in a reasonable period of time, or it will have a negative effect on all the work being done at the moment. Choose Chicago is constantly getting calls from concerned people who have read the news reports of unprovoked attacks in the Michigan Avenue corridor and of the surge in murders in some impoverished parts of Chicago.

The issue has gained national attention after an article in the New York Times, and Welsh says that meeting planners are calling Choose Chicago and asking if the city is safe. Choose Chicago is maintaining a map of where violent crime is happening, and Chicago police have increased patrolling along the Magnificent Mile and its surrounding areas since the attacks. Even officers assigned to other parts of the city are patrolling the area.

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 Posted on July 05, 2012 in Criminal Defense

According to the Chicago Tribune, two Chicago teens are accused of attacking and robbing a South Side 65-year-old man near Stroger Hospital as he was picking up his cousin from a doctor’s appointment. One of the teens allegedly hit Vietnam veteran Willie Haynes in the head, causing him to fall to the ground. The 18-year-old and 17-year-old teens robbed the victim of $100 and fled. Haynes was unconscious for a brief period of time before he was able to regain consciousness and get up. The two teens have been charged with aggravated robbery and aggravated battery to a senior citizen, and the court set bail for each teen at $100,000.

Each of these teenagers face potentially severe penalties for their alleged crimes. For instance, because the victim in this case was a senior citizen, the crime is a felony of a different class than general aggravated battery under Illinois law. As a result, if convicted, the teens may face jail and even prison time, even though one of the teenagers is still a minor. Given the gravity of these charges, a strong defense by an accomplished criminal defense lawyer will be necessary to minimize the negatives consequences that these charges are likely to bring if a conviction occurs for either teenager.

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 Posted on July 02, 2012 in Sexual Assault

On June 18^th, the Supreme Court voted on a controversial issue concerning in-court procedures. The Justice’s decision was split 5-4 in conflict with the high court’s ruling that any defendant should have the opportunity to question the expert testimony of a DNA analyst. The issue was presented by a Chicago-area man named Sandy Williams who was convicted of rape but was not allowed to question the reliability of the claims which influenced his sentencing.

Williams was convicted of raping a 22-year old woman in Chicago who was returning home from work and raped by a man in his car. The genetic material was sent for genetic testing to a laboratory in Maryland. With the results of that DNA profile, an analyst from the Illinois state crime lab named Sandra Lambatostestified at the trial and was cross-examined by Williams’ defense attorney.

The DNA expert’s testimony swore that William’s DNA matched a sample taken from the victim, which led to the conviction of Williams. The problem is presented by the fact that the expert played no role in the testing of the samples of William’s DNA. The 3^rd party company, named Cellmark, who did the actual tests, was not present to defend their findings. Courts had previously ruled that criminal defendants have the privilege to interrogate the analyst who prepared the results of testing.

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