Octopus Overlords

Posted: **Wed Mar 27, 2019 12:16 am**

LawBeefaroni wrote: Tue Mar 26, 2019 4:13 pm To recap:

Kim Foxx, the SA, recused herself from the case after it came to light that she was trying to get the FBI to take he case from the CPD. Her office, however, continued to handle the case under her direction.

Foxx recused because she was working on behalf of a Smolett family member and their attorney.

Foxx is a fucking disaster and people are literally dying because of her incompetence.

I'm going to need this explained using small words but....

1) the state(city?) AG recused herself from this case after texting with a family member of a suspect
2) the suspect was indicted on 16 felony accounts
3) the AG dropped all charges and the judge sealed the records
4) the former suspect is now claiming exoneration

Is that about right?

Posted: **Wed Mar 27, 2019 8:49 am**

Suggests to me the CPD or AG screwed up somewhere and there's no political will to continue, especially if the defense was going to hit back.

Posted: **Wed Mar 27, 2019 9:00 am**

GungHo wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 12:16 am
LawBeefaroni wrote: Tue Mar 26, 2019 4:13 pm To recap:

Kim Foxx, the SA, recused herself from the case after it came to light that she was trying to get the FBI to take he case from the CPD. Her office, however, continued to handle the case under her direction.

Foxx recused because she was working on behalf of a Smolett family member and their attorney.

Foxx is a fucking disaster and people are literally dying because of her incompetence.
I'm going to need this explained using small words but....

1) the state(city?) AG recused herself from this case after texting with a family member of a suspect
2) the suspect was indicted on 16 felony accounts
3) the AG dropped all charges and the judge sealed the records
4) the former suspect is now claiming exoneration

Is that about right?

1. Foxx is the Cook County State's Attorney. She texted with Tina Tchen and a Smolett family member, yes. It appears Tchen was putting pressure on her to move the case away from CPD.
2. Yes.
3. I think they came to a deal where Smolett did some community service with Rainbow Push and paid $10K (voluntarily forfeited his bond).
4. Yes.

Notably, Foxx recently attended the Oscars and was said to be cultivating connections. She's kind of known to be a star chaser.

Unrelated, but really weird and on topic for he thread, R Kelly's recently requested to be allowed to go to Dubai for a series of concerts. Since Dubai does have extradition to the US, there was a lit of skepticism. As the matter was being weighed, the CPD superintendent travelled to Dubai for a police exchange (WTF are we going to learn from Dubai policing?). Around the same time, Dubai denied any R Kelly concerts were scheduled. R Kelly doesn't get to go to Dubai at last report.

Posted: **Wed Mar 27, 2019 9:01 am**

LawBeefaroni wrote: Tue Mar 26, 2019 4:13 pm

Foxx is a fucking disaster and people are literally dying because of her incompetence.

Oh geez, guess who the judge was?

Posted: **Wed Mar 27, 2019 9:04 am**

Zarathud wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 8:49 am Suggests to me the CPD or AG screwed up somewhere and there's no political will to continue, especially if the defense was going to hit back.

I've heard them insist their case was solid.

this whole thing is nuts.

Posted: **Wed Mar 27, 2019 9:10 am**

Unagi wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 9:04 am
Zarathud wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 8:49 am Suggests to me the CPD or AG screwed up somewhere and there's no political will to continue, especially if the defense was going to hit back.
I've heard them insist their case was solid.

this whole thing is nuts.

Foxx's office is saying they didn't feel the evidence was solid. CPD is saying it was. What really smells is that the CCSA didn't notify investigators (or the mayor or Johnson or anyone) that they were agreeing to the deal before making the public announcement. That's unheard of from what I understand.

Don't think the political will was lacking either, listening to Johnson and Emanuel yesterday. Preckwinkle is getting crushed in polls, maybe Foxx is trying to get an out before the runoff election? No idea.

Posted: **Wed Mar 27, 2019 9:18 am**

The USPS police and the FBI are still investigating the acetaminophen-laced threat letter Smolett received so he's not 100% off the hook yet.

Posted: **Wed Mar 27, 2019 9:18 am**

The Chicago Sun Times had a nice write up about how odd this is. I liked this quote from an attorney who was in the courtroom during the hearing.

A: Dave Gaeger, a veteran defense attorney who happened to be in the courtroom during Smollett’s brief hearing, said he was surprised. Smollett wasn’t required to fulfill any conditions to have the charges dropped, and forfeiting his bond money to the city was not described as restitution or a fine. “This was a unique outcome for a case of this magnitude, or at least for the amount of attention it’s gotten, and it’s not very transparent,” Gaeger said. He added that he had never seen a similar end to a case and said as a defense attorney he’d never been offered similar deals by prosecutors.

They also note that Smollett doesn't have to do any more community service. They're supposedly letting his past charity work suffice.

This is all very, very odd.

...did I say odd? I meant corrupt.

Posted: **Wed Mar 27, 2019 9:25 am**

And the charity work he’s being given credit for was all well before this crime.

I mean. This is so clearly wrong they just can’t get away with this... right???
I seriously hope the mayor sues.

Posted: **Wed Mar 27, 2019 9:51 am**

Unagi wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 9:25 am And the charity work he’s being given credit for was all well before this crime.

I mean. This is so clearly wrong they just can’t get away with this... right???
I seriously hope the mayor sues.

You ask this question yet live in Chicago??????
This city and state is a world unto its own.

Posted: **Wed Mar 27, 2019 10:10 am**

Every city and state is a world unto its own when something corrupt happens.

Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown.

Posted: **Wed Mar 27, 2019 10:27 am**

stimpy wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 9:51 am
Unagi wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 9:25 am And the charity work he’s being given credit for was all well before this crime.

I mean. This is so clearly wrong they just can’t get away with this... right???
I seriously hope the mayor sues.
You ask this question yet live in Chicago??????
This city and state is a world unto its own.

yeah I know.... that was the 'right??' of defeat.

Still, I don't think we are quite done with this story. Mayor and CPD sound pissed.

Posted: **Wed Mar 27, 2019 10:30 am**

Unagi wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 10:27 am
stimpy wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 9:51 am
Unagi wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 9:25 am And the charity work he’s being given credit for was all well before this crime.

I mean. This is so clearly wrong they just can’t get away with this... right???
I seriously hope the mayor sues.
You ask this question yet live in Chicago??????
This city and state is a world unto its own.
yeah I know.... that was the 'right??' of defeat.

Still, I don't think we are quite done with this story. Mayor and CPD sound pissed.

I'd like to add, as a person who had to do 120 hours of community service over a much less serious crime, I find his 16 hours laughable.

Posted: **Wed Mar 27, 2019 10:37 am**

stimpy wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 10:30 am I'd like to add, as a person who had to do 120 hours of community service over a much less serious crime, I find his 16 hours laughable.

So $10k / (120 - 16) hours = $96.15/hour.

Posted: **Wed Mar 27, 2019 10:50 am**

But wait, there's more!

Smollett's previous lawyer, Mark Geragos, is the co-conspirator in the Avenatti case.

His current lawyer, and the one who worked on the deal, Patricia Brown Homes, is the special prosecutor appointed by Foxx for the Laquan McDonald police "cover-up" trial. Which in and of itself isn't that outrageous, after all there are only so many qualified attorneys. But the lack of transparency on the deal, along with the adversarial posture of the CCSA against the CPD, raise some eyebrows.

Posted: **Wed Mar 27, 2019 10:54 am**

FWIW (AIPNWM (and it's probably not worth much)), one of my co-workers is friend's with Smollet's attorney, and she says that if she or anyone in her family got into any sort of trouble, she wouldn't hesitate in going to this attorney. Apparently she means business and is very good.

Posted: **Wed Mar 27, 2019 12:11 pm**

Isgrimnur wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 10:37 am
stimpy wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 10:30 am I'd like to add, as a person who had to do 120 hours of community service over a much less serious crime, I find his 16 hours laughable.
So $10k / (120 - 16) hours = $96.15/hour.

Oh...did I not mention my fine?
Not quite $10k, but not that far off.

Plus, my community service wasn't sitting in the Operation Push office shaking hands.

Posted: **Wed Mar 27, 2019 12:22 pm**

But the $10K wasn't a fine. Who knows what it actually was but it wasn't a fine according to everyone involved.

The community service was some weird kind of time served thing. "Commmunity served" maybe.

Posted: **Wed Mar 27, 2019 12:23 pm**

stimpy wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 12:11 pm Plus, my community service wasn't sitting in the Operation Push office shaking hands.

The citizens of Markham thank you for their super-clean alleys.

Posted: **Wed Mar 27, 2019 12:29 pm**

Jeff V wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 12:23 pm
stimpy wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 12:11 pm Plus, my community service wasn't sitting in the Operation Push office shaking hands.
The citizens of Markham thank you for their super-clean alleys.

Actually....you should be thanking me if you're still near Aurora....

Posted: **Wed Mar 27, 2019 1:22 pm**

stimpy wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 12:29 pm
Jeff V wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 12:23 pm
stimpy wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 12:11 pm Plus, my community service wasn't sitting in the Operation Push office shaking hands.
The citizens of Markham thank you for their super-clean alleys.
Actually....you should be thanking me if you're still near Aurora....

Wife works in Aurora.

Posted: **Wed Mar 27, 2019 1:27 pm**

stimpy wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 12:29 pm
Jeff V wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 12:23 pm
stimpy wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 12:11 pm Plus, my community service wasn't sitting in the Operation Push office shaking hands.
The citizens of Markham thank you for their super-clean alleys.
Actually....you should be thanking me if you're still near Aurora....

I thought stall number 3 in the park's men's room looked like your handiwork!

Posted: **Wed Mar 27, 2019 2:05 pm**

hepcat wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 1:27 pm
stimpy wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 12:29 pm
Jeff V wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 12:23 pm
stimpy wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 12:11 pm Plus, my community service wasn't sitting in the Operation Push office shaking hands.
The citizens of Markham thank you for their super-clean alleys.
Actually....you should be thanking me if you're still near Aurora....
I thought stall number 3 in the park's men's room looked like your handiwork!

Yep. That one went on my wall of fame. I was particularly surprised at how clean my teeth felt the next morning, despite the amount of fecal matter I scrubbed off from under that toilet seat with my toothbrush. Usually I have to not be so thorough, or else I can still taste some remnants the next day. Especially if corn or kale was digested.

Posted: **Wed Mar 27, 2019 2:21 pm**

hepcat wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 1:27 pm
stimpy wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 12:29 pm
Jeff V wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 12:23 pm
stimpy wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 12:11 pm Plus, my community service wasn't sitting in the Operation Push office shaking hands.
The citizens of Markham thank you for their super-clean alleys.
Actually....you should be thanking me if you're still near Aurora....
I thought stall number 3 in the park's men's room looked like your handiwork!

Why is it when you talk of handiwork, your mind immediately goes to stall number 3 in the park’s men’s room....

Posted: **Wed Mar 27, 2019 2:24 pm**

Because stall number 2 is so déclassé?

Posted: **Wed Mar 27, 2019 4:24 pm**

Foxx is defending this by saying it happens all the time in Cook County and that Smolett didn't get any special treatment. Yeah, Kim, that's the problem. While the details are a bit unusual, the results are the same old catch and release bullshit.

Posted: **Thu Mar 28, 2019 7:20 pm**

I care nothing for Jussie Smollett and have never seen whatever show he's on. I do believe that lying to the police and wasting their time is a problem.

But to judge from the reaction we're seeing all across the political spectrum, you'd think this was the worst crime ever committed in Chicago. Is that the case?

Posted: **Thu Mar 28, 2019 7:24 pm**

Not at all.
However, the resolution of his case has been handled remarkably 'back-door' and he seems to have been given some extraordinarily special treatment - like no other defendant before, from the accounts I've read.

Posted: **Fri Mar 29, 2019 9:56 am**

The city is sending him a bill for something like $130K for police overtime. He'll probably fight it since it would be an admission.

Posted: **Fri Mar 29, 2019 10:00 am**

LawBeefaroni wrote: Fri Mar 29, 2019 9:56 am The city is sending him a bill for something like $130K for police overtime. He'll probably fight it since it would be an admission.

They have a better chance of making Burke and Madigan repay all the money they've made illegally off us taxpayers then they have a chance that Smolley will ever pay a dime.

Posted: **Fri Mar 29, 2019 10:04 am**

He's already paid a 10k.

I have no idea what's going on in Chicago, it all seems pretty freakin' fishy to me, but he paid bond then voluntarily gave it up in a mutual agreement. I suspect some sort of agreement will be made over the $130k as well.

Posted: **Fri Mar 29, 2019 10:05 am**

Illinois Prosecutor's Bar Association's take.

The events of the past few days regarding the Cook County State’s Attorney’s handling of the Jussie Smollett case is not condoned by the IPBA, nor is it representative of the honest ethical work prosecutors provide to the citizens of the State of Illinois on a daily basis.

The manner in which this case was dismissed was abnormal and unfamiliar to those who practice law in criminal courthouses across the State. Prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges alike do not recognize the arrangement Mr. Smollett received. Even more problematic, the State’s Attorney and her representatives have fundamentally misled the public on the law and circumstances surrounding the dismissal.

The public has the right to know the truth, and we set out to do that here.

Posted: **Fri Mar 29, 2019 11:25 am**

GreenGoo wrote: Fri Mar 29, 2019 10:04 am He's already paid a 10k.

I have no idea what's going on in Chicago, it all seems pretty freakin' fishy to me, but he paid bond then voluntarily gave it up in a mutual agreement. I suspect some sort of agreement will be made over the $130k as well.

You usually have to pay 10% of your bond to be released. Thats the $10,000.
Why didn't he have to pay the whole bond to have the charges dropped, which was $100,000?

Posted: **Fri Mar 29, 2019 11:38 am**

I don't understand. Bond is money put up as insurance against you skipping out. It's part of being allowed out of jail while the legal process continues. It's not a payment for getting out of charges.

I mean, who knows what's going on in Chicago, but I have no idea how to answer your question because it's based on the system working in a different way than it works. At least as far as I know. You're the one with experience with it, I guess? I didn't read the entire thread in detail.

Posted: **Fri Mar 29, 2019 12:02 pm**

FOP:

Posted: **Fri Mar 29, 2019 3:07 pm**

GreenGoo wrote: Fri Mar 29, 2019 11:38 am I don't understand. Bond is money put up as insurance against you skipping out. It's part of being allowed out of jail while the legal process continues. It's not a payment for getting out of charges.

I mean, who knows what's going on in Chicago, but I have no idea how to answer your question because it's based on the system working in a different way than it works. At least as far as I know. You're the one with experience with it, I guess? I didn't read the entire thread in detail.

I do have experience with the process, but under much different circumstances.
I, like many others, am trying to wrap my head around how this played out the way it did.
It certainly goes against the norm, if nothing else.

Posted: **Wed Apr 03, 2019 10:25 am**

So Foxx is in the news for the Smollett case, but hopefully it forces someone to look at shit like this, which is common and what citizens have to live with every day:

Dan Davies, the driver who police say rammed an Illinois State trooper’s squad car while driving the wrong way on the Tri-State tollway early Saturday morning, should not have been driving a car anywhere.

After all, officials of the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office say they cannot find any evidence Davies ever got a driver’s license.

Despite that fact, Davies was stopped by police dozens of times - receiving over 70 tickets - including repeated citations for driving without a license. Each time he was cited for having no license, a “suspension” was added to his record at the secretary of state’s office, which would make it more difficult for him to get a license, if he ever applied for one.

He also was arrested twice for drunk driving.

Investigators say Davies was driving the wrong way on the Tri-State tollway near Libertyville early Saturday, when he rammed a squad car driven by Trooper Gerald Ellis. Both were killed in the crash.

Records obtained by NBC5 Investigates show that Davies’ first citation for driving without a license was in 1996. Since then, he had received 71 tickets during 25 traffic stops.

...

After his November drunk driving arrest, Davies’ case was eventually transferred to Cook County Criminal Court, where he faced multiple charges of aggravated DUI. But in that case, he was granted a $3000 I-bond, meaning he had to post no cash, and he was never jailed - despite what authorities say was one of the worst driving records in the state of Illinois. And remember – he had no license in the first place.

...

A spokesman for Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx did not respond to NBC5 Investigates’ repeated inquiries about what position prosecutors took to try to keep Davies in custody.

Davies was no stranger to the Cook County Criminal Court. NBC 5 Investigates has learned that since he was a teenager, in addition to his dozens of traffic stops, he also was charged in 22 additional criminal cases... where he faced repeated charges of criminal damage to property, assault and battery - including battery on a police officer and domestic battery - drug-dealing, and drug possession.

Davies was found guilty in seven of those cases, but served a total of only 53 total days in jail – less than two months, including a sentence of just ten days for a conviction stemming from his first DUI arrest in 2010.

It's infuriating.

Posted: **Mon Apr 08, 2019 1:52 pm**

Jussie Who?:

Posted: **Mon Apr 08, 2019 2:42 pm**

stimpy wrote: Mon Apr 08, 2019 1:52 pm Jussie Who?:

Members of the Blue Klux Klan (so named by Foxx's opening act at her rally), arrived on scene at the baby shower shootings, applied a chest seal to the 8-year-old and gave him CPR until Fire arrived, most likely saving his life. In return, no one cooperated with investigators to identify the shooters. So they'll live to shoot another day. This is why the race rheroric , a la Jamal Green and Jesse Jackson is so harmful.

Posted: **Mon Apr 08, 2019 2:47 pm**

Gotta make sure those guns are properly thawed after the long winter freeze...

Octopus Overlords

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