Watts cases to be examined
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx has agreed to look into hundreds of convictions involving disgraced former Chicago Police Sgt. Ronald Watts and his underlings.
“The Conviction Integrity Unit is reviewing any cases of incarcerated individuals where Watts was substantively involved,” spokeswoman Tandra Simonton confirmed Monday.
Lawyers with the University of Chicago’s Exoneration Project on Monday withdrew their petition for a court review of convictions in cases handled by Watts and his team.
The state’s attorney’s involvement means the petition is no longer needed, explained Joshua Tepfer, an attorney with the Exoneration Project. The group last year asked Chief Criminal Court Judge Leroy Martin Jr. to review the cases.
Watts, who supervised officers at the Ida B. Wells housing complex on the South Side, was sentenced to 22 months in federal prison in 2013 for ripping off a drug courier who was an FBI informant. Rummana Hussain
A first: No measurable snowfall in Chicago in January or February
Looks like Chicago is about to do something for the first time in more than 100 years— and we aren’t still talking about the Cubs winning the World Series.
The city will likely go the entire months of January and February with no measurable snowfall— the first time the city has gone without snow on the ground in those two months in 146 years of recordkeeping, according to the National Weather Service in Romeoville.
The last measurable snow recorded at O’Hare Airport was Christmas Day, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Amy Seeley. Jordan Owen
Chicago murder suspect mistakenly released from custody in Will County
A man charged with murder for a shooting on the Dan Ryan Expressway in 2012 was mistakenly released from prison last week instead of being returned to custody in Cook County.
“Earlier today, the Cook County sheriff’s office was notified that inmate Garrett Glover had been released from the Illinois Department of Corrections,” a statement from the sheriff’s office said.
In 2014, Glover was taken into custody and charged with an armed robbery, according to Cara Smith, Cook County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman.
Then in 2015, Glover was charged with murder in connection with a Sept. 5, 2012, shooting on southbound I- 94 on the Far South Side.
Last week, Glover was convicted of the armed robbery charge and sentenced to four years in prison, Smith said. He was taken to the IDOC intake center in Stateville, but employees there determined he had been in Cook County custody long enough to fulfill his time for the robbery conviction.
“He should have been returned to custody of the Cook County Jail on the murder case,” Smith said.
Instead, he was released from IDOC custody on Thursday from Stateville, located near Crest Hill in Will County. He has not been seen since.
The department of corrections did not receive any additional documentation or information from Cook County indicating Glover should have been held beyond his release date on the armed robbery charge, IDOC spokeswoman Nicole Wilson said in a statement. Jeff Mayes
Emanuel hires police liaison from San Jose
The independent police auditor for San Jose, California, said Monday he agreed to take a “small” pay cut to accept a job he called the “biggest policing challenge in America”— as Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s point person for public safety.
Walter Katz, 50, will become Emanuel’s $ 165,000- ayear deputy chief of staff for public safety and chief liaison with the Chicago Police Department. He replaces Janey Rountree, who left on the day the U. S. Justice Department released its scathing indictment of the CPD.
Katz will be asked to help turn an agreement in principle with the Justice Department into a detailed consent decree that culminates in the hiring of a federal monitor to ride herd over the CPD.