Ex- NBA player Simmons to testify in Hobo trial
Ten years after he got in a car chase with the man alleged to be one of the deadliest members of Chicago’s socalled “super gang,” former NBA player Bobby Simmons is expected to testify Thursday at the Hobo street gang’s federal racketeering trial.
Paris “Poleroski” Poe opened fire on Simmons during the chase in June 2006, prosecutors say. Poe is the same man accused of executing two informants who snitched on the Hobos to the Chicago Police Department and the FBI.
Simmons, a former Simeon High School and DePaul University forward, would have played for the Milwaukee Bucks at the time.
The feds say Poe robbed Simmons of a $ 200,000 white gold necklace outside a North Side nightclub on June 11, 2006. Simmons handed over the necklace but then chased Poe — along with several other people — as Poe fled in a car driven by alleged Hobo Arnold “Armstrong” Council. Poe allegedly shot at Simmons’ car but then jumped out of Council’s car and ran.
Council crashed his car, and the feds say Simmons held Council there until police arrived. However, prosecutors say Simmons became nervous about identifying Poe and Council to authorities because he had “heard word on the streets that both Poe and Council were extremely dangerous.” Simmons feared for his life, prosecutors say.
They also said Simmons received “mysterious phone calls” from people asking him about the case. It wasn’t until Poe and Council were arrested on separate charges that Simmons agreed to cooperate, according to prosecutors. Poe and Council pleaded guilty to Simmons’ robbery in December 2010, records show.
Prosecutors say Simmons never got his necklace back. They also say Council wound up suing Simmons over the incident.
A jury has already heard two weeks of testimony in the case at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, where prosecutors are putting six alleged Hobo leaders on trial. The gang has been tied to nine murders over nearly a decade. On Wednesday, jurors heard details about a September 2006 shootout at a car wash at 76th and Vincennes.
Someone tried to gun down alleged Hobo leader Gregory “Bowlegs” Ches- ter there on Sept. 18, 2006. Chester was shot multiple times, but prosecutors say Poe stepped in to protect the Hobo leader, firing back and killing Kevin Thompson, an innocent bystander who was visiting Chicago from California to celebrate his birthday. One car wash worker testified that her three children were in the waiting room of the car wash at the time.
Thompson’s friend, Antonio Hollis, testified that the shooting lasted “at least” one or two minutes.
Earlier this week, Kevin Montgomery testified that he saw Poe fire a shot at Wilbert Moore, the CPD informant allegedly gunned down by Poe and Council on Jan. 19, 2006. Montgomery said Moore ran away, patting his body to see if he’d been shot. Montgomery said he didn’t see what happened next.
The feds say Council and Poe murdered Moore after chasing him to a vacant lot.