The Fix is in Already
This crooked Cook County judge again:
In a courtroom at 26th and California on Thursday, two CWB Chicago story arcs came face to face: the effectiveness of facial recognition as a law enforcement tool and the frequency with which Judge D’Anthony Thedford refuses to grant detention petitions. The coincidental combo came after sheriff’s deputies brought Merlin Lu into Courtroom 102 to face hate crime, arson, and other charges for the high-profile cross-burning incident in Grant Park last week.
Prosecutors told Thedford that on June 9, Lu was captured on surveillance video holding two long planks of wood, walking from his Halsted Street home toward Grant Park. At about 1:52 p.m., he allegedly nailed two pieces of wood together, wrapped toilet paper around the cross, doused it with a gallon of kerosene, and tied a red hat to the top. Prosecutors said Lu propped the cross against a tree and set it on fire. Viral video recorded by a witness captured the cross and the tree burning, with flames extending into the tree’s upper limbs.
[...] Prosecutors said that after being read his Miranda rights, Lu admitted to purchasing the materials, assembling the cross, and burning it. Prosecutors said Lu also identified himself in two still images, one showing him buying kerosene at Home Depot and another showing him walking toward Grant Park with the wood planks.
Judge Thedford rejected the state’s request to detain Lu and did not require him to be placed on electronic monitoring, either. However, Thedford did instruct Lu to avoid purchasing items that could be used to start a fire, such as wood or kerosene, according to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.
Ooooo....that'll stop crime!
CWB reports that Thedford has quite the disqualifying history:
- “Between 2011 and 2018, the state and federal governments filed liens against Thedford and his wife seeking to collect about $249,000 in unpaid taxes, interest, and penalties,” Injustice Watch reported. “In 2020, the couple declared bankruptcy and reported that they owed the IRS some $220,000 and owed the Illinois Department of Revenue about $10,000.”
But that didn't stop him from landing a seat on the bench.
Labels: corruption
posted by SCC at 12:07 AM
77 Comments:
Can you spell "D-E-M-O-C-R-A-T" ?
Lu is an Anchor Baby democrat voter. A big Smolett fan and wannabe.
No punishment for him under this Leftist regime.
They should bring back bonds to get out before trial. This "detain" or "release on EM" are two extremes.
Guy has no criminal record. He gave an interview on TV. But he hasn't been proven guilty of the charges against him.
Yes, he burned the cross, but he has not been proven guilty. Experienced court-goers will know the difference. Some are "guilty" of a crime but then they are not charged properly so they are "not guilty" of what they were charged with.
Gee, I thought if an individual held any employment position within IL that required professional licensing that the state could suspend those professional licenses until your delinquency of taxes had been adjudicated, or in this case at least faced an ARDC inquiry or discipline.
I bet if Lu had placed a photo of George Floyd or Obama on the cross it would have been a different story.
Hopefully the kid's lawyer gets him off the hook with some "artistic expression" defense.
There is zero chance this guy is convicted of anything other than DC. Only after the feds then charge him will he face consequences
So Narcotics is going into districts because the tact teams do Watrant arrests and retail thefts ! I get that! But who gets to wear shorts? A tiough guy that worked 5 years in 007 or a tough guy that worked 4 years in 011
He should run for mayor with that street cred!
Democrat never pay their bills. They won't do anything to this offender because he's anti Trump. If he said he hated democrats and illegals, he'd be charged with a hate crime.
If you owed that much money to IRS or State that would have stopped you from being hired as a Police Officer, Fire fighter, States attorney, and Animal control officer.
But this Dog gets to be a Judge? And you wonder why the County and City are being run by criminals?
Another POS DEI hire..... Have the Feds go after Both the POS judge and the Karate Kid........Must be on of those New 11th Ward voters Living on Halsted seeing how they Moved the11th ward so far North and cut out Half of Canary Ville so that Lee could win .. Move on Nothing to see here from the Dummyrat Socialist of Shitcago........
Thedford was Defense Atty at 26th and his wife is still a PD assigned to Murder Task Force. She is white, with short blond spiked hair. Both, true believers.
I have been to this Judges court room. And it’s run like a hang out for ambulance chasers and idiots of the criminal justice system?
You have better chances of no home monitoring in his court room. And once you see how the courts run things, the victims and arresting officers just quit showing up to pursue the cases! The attorneys know this and work the system!
of course he got on the bench, his handlers (the dem party) made him an offer he could not refuse,,, just do what they tell him to do
Illinois is as crooked as they come..no wonder why people and businesses are leaving in groves!
Hey Thedford. Go eat a bag of d#cks ! POS
Beach is an even less intelligent version of Evans. He's equally pro crime. Has Lyke been moved somewhere he won't get people killed?
How did he become a judge. Was he appointed?
This int a hate crime , it’s disorderly conduct or reckless conduct at best. , Ridiculous
My guess is that the feds will hear about this and he will be arrested and charged with a federal hate crime
A decent real victim can't get a fair trial in cook county. Crooked politicians and thugs, murderers, car jackers, thefts, rapists, and illegal aliens, arsonists, are protected and more than often let go multiple times to commit more capital and heinous crimes against the innocent taxpayers of cook county and Illinois. Democrats.
"D'Anthony". Say no more.
As a judge he is a state employee. Hope he paid off that $10,000 he owes the Illinois Department of Revenue. Or are they garnishing his wages?
Sounds like the CPD WE also promote to exempt positions only the best and brightest!
This kid is an idiot but no way he should be held. Guys with guns, domestic violence, robbers, people assaulting women and doing beat downs all need to be housed and they won’t. Not gonna whine about this nut job.
What is Lu charged with? There were no victims around and the pictures didnt really show any damage. A hate crime is only an aggravating factor when another crime is committed against a person.
This is some real ghetto bull shit.
Taxes be racist and shit.
Shorts and backward baseball hats and Oakley sunglasses are the uniform of the day. Oh , don’t forget the hardass stare when you encounter one of these superstars in a hallway.
they owed the IRS some $220,000 and owed the Illinois Department of Revenue about $10,000.”then used a drop in property values as an excuse? One has nothing to do with the other. He didn't pay income tax period. Thats why the IRS went after him, everything he uses is an excuse. Remember old Harold Washington? Another guy with excuses the IRS went after. He became mayor.
Im sure her father is proud too.
Nothing will change until Toni leaves or goes to jail. And that will NEVER happen.
He admitted in his interview that he did it because of Christian nationalist. A crime committed because of a religious affiliation is by definition a hate crime.
5,800 IRS employees owe back taxes, apparently they can't find them either
Courts in blue sections of the country are corrupt and there is no such thing as equal justice, they put their thumb in the scale.
The democratic party is a criminal organization, taken over by leftists. It looks as though only something drastic, like military intervention, can fix this.
Kids a twit not a criminal. Question is what other twisted evil thoughts are bouncing around in his head and will he act on them?
Yep & they have the dem voters convinced that if you vote for "me" everything will be free
Madness
Is the tree going to be OK?
And he is a shining example of the quality our university education system is producing. The future doesn't look bright.
OT:
Like Trump said at the State of the Union " These people are SICK". :
https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/making-students-kiss-colorado-teacher-fired/
DEI political connected crooks deadbeats
Rules are for thee not for me!
Another Democrat who thinks he doesn’t have to pay taxes, just like Prickster and every other Democrat
I give up-what's an anchor baby? Sorry I forgot to capitalize those words like you did.
Welll,...Phfather Phfaker...can spend that $10 K Large on something better,....
...Dinner for those special "Lads"....some casino time,....
He's guilty, asshat.
How much do the judges make? Over $200,000. He have got to be a major degenerate to not be able to pay your taxes.
Meanwhile Brandon Johnson and entourage entered the United Crnter at gate 6 1/2 for the Dave Chappell show last night. Of course he sat in a lower suite
Five years of blond hair jobs for the good Father.
Stop defending him. Are you his handler?
Are you his CCP handler? The People of the City of Chicago, and State of Illinois, and members of the Christian faith are victims in this. I pray you aren't a policeman.
It’s clear who’s at fault: Home Depot
Looks like Judge Thedford went to the same school of finance as Brandon Johnson. What’s with these dopes who can’t pay their bills on time?
Ghetto is as ghetto does whether in a judge's robe or not.
He's guilty of what AH? Which charge?
See R.A.V. vs St. Paul, a landmark US Supreme Court case in which cross-burning was protected by the First Amendment. You missed the point of the comment that you can commit an incident some find offensive but not be guilty of the charges because the charges filed could be inappropriate to the action committed.
Think before you type.
I believe you are right. All the felony charges are to appease the community and the media, but the felonies will be dropped in exchange for a plea to a misdemeanor.
I'm not a victim of this idiot's behavior.
You can play victim all you want.
Sounds like it might be protected by the first amendment. Doesn't sound like trying to intimidate any particular group.
DC kinda has their hands full at the moment
Why does the dss and wol on 3rd watch in 011 treat officers like crap when processing an arrest? It a busy district and we already get crap making arrests in your district from the public. Dont need more headaches from you. From what I hear you treat your own officers the same way. We are not children treat us with the same level of respect and professionalism we treat you. Its a two way street. Your white shirts dont make you tyrants, be the leaders your suppose to be.
Is this the same kid who has a federal security clearance to intern at Argone National Laboratories?
Harolds birthday was 4/15 claimed he forgot
What he did is a criminal act, i.e. he's a criminal
Stop it. You know what an anchor baby is. There is a probability above 0% that the student is an anchor baby. The issue is what is the probability? 1% or 100%. Not knowing anything about his family, I put it at 60% that his grandma has immigration violations. So she is the ship and this is what an anchor looks like.
SCOTUS please save America regarding anchor babies and release the ruling on July 4th.
I remember this chunky Asian female sergeant on 2nd watch in the early 2000s, she was a horrible human being to deal with. Also that police officer in the lockup that got arrested for blowing trans arrestees in the lockup. He was horrible to deal with as well. They made it miserable for you to process or bring an arrestee to the lockup. From my experience if they disrespect you they are no longer working within the scope of their supervision. They don't have any general order that allows a supervisor to mistreat a department member. To be honest not everyone is cut out to be a supervisor. A lot of them thought they could have the same easy day they did when they were a police officer dodging jobs. Little did they know you have a job to do now and your the only one to do it.
Able, just don’t want to Entitled and a way of life
They didn't give you a treat? What do you want them to do? Pat you on the back. Either you give them an arrest report with the probable cause, along with properly done inventories, or you don't. If you fail to do that, you deserve a bad attitude since that's the bare minimum of being a cop.
Wanna try my kung fu?
Stop the junk. The kid is a criminal. The tree needs to be removed and a new one planted with extra miracle grow so that it grows to the same size as the others rather quickly. Put the kid into gitmo prison for 20 years and then allow back into society with NO public aid.
6/20/2026 10:16:41 PM
You can minimize this incident to your heart’s content, it is still a crime.
Perhaps you have an ulterior motive for defending an admitted criminal?
It was a public park. Illegal.
There should be a record of a Bar Association investigation of his BK filing as a failure of character, or an explanation of why there wasn't one, besides "he is a Democrat". With a current BK filing, he should not be an attorney, much less a judge.
John in Indy
Doesn't the added red hat spin this as another "8647" against the President?
No matter. Slap on the wrist forthcoming.
As everyone knows, tax is normally taken out of paychecks. Judges are, as far as I know, are using the county payroll. So what has he been up to? Is this declared grift money that wasn't taxed? Or he got clever with tax deductions and they were disallowed?
Disagree. Inventories are disaster to do now days. Example phone that you can’t turn off that keep ringing, bags that homeless people have that have .16 cents n the fifth pair of pants with shat stains, 67 syringes that the arrestee states are diabetes medicine, 2 foot knives that don’t fit in a nonexistent knive box, etc.....
Crook County Judiciary are the best judges that money can buy.
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