Okay, This is Just Crazy Now

We've been pointing out for weeks and months now that after decades of under-sentencing and the complete destruction of any sort of trust in the judicial system, someone must have sent a memo out to Cook County judges to start sentencing criminals to actual prison time. All if this in an effort to instill confidence in democrats "really really hate crime - pinky promise!"

Now we have this crooked judge who is most famous for....:

• acquitting Whitney Temple for attempting to murder a Chicago Police Officer with his squad car, AND
• accusing unnamed Chicago Police Officers of threatening her after said verdict WITHOUT making a police report, WITHOUT notifying CPD Internal Affairs and WITHOUT notifying Sheriff Dart's judicial protection people AND
• slandering the blog about "doxing her" for saying she lived in Englewood - something that appeared on her campaign website.

....and guess what she did?

• Frank Burrell spent about 20 years in prison for a 1999 murder conviction that was later overturned. On Thursday, a Cook County judge rejected his bid to be declared innocent of the crime, ruling that the evidence presented during a Certificate of Innocence proceeding did not undermine her confidence in the original conviction or the 32-year sentence he received.

  “I am not at all of the position that anything presented in this C of I has undermined my confidence in the earlier rulings,” Judge Tyria Walton said. “I don’t think that, for me, the earlier findings were improper.”

There is no way this mentally deficient DEI judge came up with that on her own. Obviously, she was told by her handlers to deny this make up "certificate" so that taxpayers weren't on the hook for another outrageous settlement that only enriches the liars lawyers because that might endanger the reelection prospects of other Machine pols.

More SAFE-T Failure

In spite of the effort by Cook County judges to hammer convicts with sentences that haven't been seen in decades, they're still failing to keep violent criminals in check via cash bonds or custodial restrictions:

• The system had three chances to stop Alex Cusick. Each time, he was released. On the fourth arrest, prosecutors say, he escalated from stealing restaurant tip jars and hopping a CTA turnstile to violently trying to rob a woman in the Loop. Cusick, 28, was arrested three times in five weeks before the September 5 attack. The first two arrests involved misdemeanor theft and trespassing, and the third was for fare jumping at the Lake Red Line station. He was released after each one. It wasn’t until prosecutors charged him with attempted robbery and battery that a judge ordered him detained.

  The arrests began July 19 at a restaurant in the 100 block of North Wabash Avenue. Staff told police Cusick was a “habitual trespasser” who repeatedly entered the restaurant, bought nothing, caused disturbances and refused to leave, a Chicago police report said. That afternoon, he allegedly stole the tip jar. Police arrested him outside, charged him with misdemeanor theft and trespassing, and released him from the station about six hours later.

  On August 15, it happened again. Cusick was arrested in the 300 block of North Wabash Avenue after a restaurant reported that he had repeatedly refused to leave and had stolen its tip jar, according to a separate police report. He was again charged with misdemeanor theft and trespassing.

  Neither charge is detainable, but Judge James Murphy III held him in custody for violating pretrial release in the first case. Judge Peter Gonzalez released him again two days later, according to court records.

  On August 28, Cusick was arrested a third time, this time for fare jumping at the Lake Red Line station in the Loop, CPD records show. He was released at the scene.

  Then came September 5.

You can read the entire story at the link up top.

But as we've stated numerous times, without an incentive to walk the straight and narrow - or at least to stop running up and over the curbs of a civilized society -  then your low life feels there are zero consequences for their actions and continues to act as such. At the very least, a cash bond that might be forfeited or a few nights in jail discouraged asshole-ish behavior for a short while. Anyone claiming differently is a moron....or a democrat.

Dems Hate Crime?

Since when? If there were any actual investigative reporters still left in Chicago, you think they'd be looking at the sudden sentencing discrepancies in Cook County just prior to an election. It happened again:

• A registered sex offender who was out of compliance with registration requirements has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after he was caught viewing child sexual abuse material on a tablet at a Chicago Public Library branch in Bucktown last year, according to court records.

  David Rideout, 51, was taken into custody around 6 p.m. on September 15, 2025, after a woman called 911 to report that a man was viewing child pornography inside the Bucktown-Wicker Park Branch, 1701 North Milwaukee Avenue.

  Responding officers found Rideout seated with a black tablet displaying an image of a naked underage girl in a graphic sexual position, according to a CPD police report. A library employee told investigators that surveillance footage showed Rideout holding the tablet and viewing images of naked underage girls, the report said.

When we become Rulers of the Universe, Officers will be allowed to take this turd into the alley behind the library and shoot him in the f#$%ing head because that's how you solve this type of problem.

After decades of democrat rule though - where they're inventing terms like "minor attracted persons" - a twenty year sentence for looking at pictures isn't in line with decades of excusing perverted behaviors. 

Giving Away Money Again

And this time, to people (or folks) that CRIMESHA HERSELF said were probably guilty of the crimes they went to prison for:

• Two Mexican men who were convicted of the brutal stabbing deaths of a Chicago couple, allegedly to help a woman steal their baby, are poised to get nearly $14 million from the city of Chicago over their claims they were coerced by cops into confessing to the murders, even though Cook County's former top prosecutor has testified she and other prosecutors never stopped believing the men were guilty of the crime.

  On Sept. 14, the Chicago City Council's Finance Committee voted overwhelmingly to recommend the full council approve the settlements with Gabriel Solache and Arturo DeLeon-Reyes.

  [...] Reyes and Solache were eventually exonerated and freed when then-Cook County State's Attorney Foxx declined in 2017 to pursue new trials against either man.

  The men swiftly filed lawsuits against the city and the police officers involved.

  They were later presented with so-called “certificates of innocence” by Cook County judges in 2022 and 2023, respectively, after Foxx's office again conspicuously declined to contest their innocence claims.

  [...] And in her testimony, Foxx revealed her office decided to not oppose the innocence petitions, even though she and other prosecutors believed both Solache and DeLeon-Reyes were guilty of the crimes for which they had been convicted. 

Crimesha has never adequately explained why she declined to actually do her fucking job and prosecute people that she believed, her staff believed and the evidence showed beyond a Reasonable Doubt that these two participated in the murders. Someone with half-a-brain would come to the completely logical conclusion that she was somehow compromised into acquiescing to the political winds of the time, likely financed by plaintiff lawyers. 

How about Crimesha sell her house and pitch in to the taxpayers she's screwing over?

One Hundred Years???

This is getting ridiculous:

• A man who got into a shootout with Chicago police officers during a hostage standoff in South Shore has been sentenced to 100 years in prison after a jury convicted him of 10 felony counts. But Steven Wade, 46, may face even more prison time. Prosecutors say he killed a woman in the hours before the standoff began, and that case remains pending.

  On February 27, 2023, Wade showed up unannounced at his ex-girlfriend’s home in the 12900 block of South Peoria Street after not seeing her for several years, wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying multiple bags. The pair spoke at the kitchen table, but the woman became uncomfortable when Wade began discussing his newfound religious beliefs, according to prosecutors. As a precaution, she called a friend and asked the friend to listen in on the conversation.

  While the friend was listening, Wade placed a gun on the table, claiming he had killed a security guard to obtain the firearm and the bulletproof vest, prosecutors said. The friend heard those remarks and immediately called 911, sending Chicago police to the home.

Is one-hundred years in line with ten felony convictions? Sure. Stack em up.

But....

There are multiple decades of precedent written into Cook County history. No one gets one-hundred years, even for multiple homicides. And if they happen to get multiple felony convictions, they end up serving sentences concurrently instead of consecutively.

These wildly inconsistent sentences are going to be an issue when the appeals go up the process. Hopefully, no one gets freed immediately, but reductions are a real possibility and you can bet the media won't cover those if / when they occur.

Tooting his own Horn

We're still surprised Dart isn't running for mayor:

• A three-year effort by the Cook County Sheriff's Office to help bring down crime on the Magnificent Mile in downtown Chicago appears to be working.

  A group of 40 to 50 sheriff's officers patrol the Mag Mile every day of the week, and have made more than 100 arrests so far this year.

  It's a concerted, concentrated effort by Cook County, following years of crime plaguing Chicago's most prominent shopping district, and record vacancy rates in buildings along the Mag Mile.

  "It was happening on a massive scale. We were getting to operations that were getting $10,000, $20,000. $100,000 of stuff that was being stolen," Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.

  His office started running the targeted law enforcement operation on the Magnificent Mile in 2023, and has made more than 415 arrests since then.

  In one recent case, sheriff's officers arrested a man who stole about $8,000 in merchandise from the alo clothing store, and was later found to have three active warrants.

Maybe he's looking at Prickwrinkle's job? 

More Assholery from Lyke

And chief judge Bee-atch won't do a thing about it:

• In Courtroom 208 at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse on 26th Street, things run a little differently. Presided over by Judge John Lyke, it is a courtroom where cop killers and other violent crime defendants can embrace their families while victims’ grieving relatives, some of whom will never touch their deceased loved ones again, look on.

  The practice is not new.

  In April 2023, Steven Montano appeared in Lyke’s courtroom to plead not guilty to the on-duty murder of Chicago Police Officer Andres Vazquez Lasso, whom Montano shot dead near a schoolyard as children took shelter under playground equipment.

  During the hearing, Lyke allowed Montano to hug several family members in the gallery, something he specifically orders his deputies to allow — in violation of sheriff’s office regulations.

  “I wanted to vomit,” said a now-retired Chicago police officer who was in the courtroom for Montano’s plea hearing. “Literally wanted to vomit. He was rubbing it in the faces of Andres’ family, partner, everyone with a sense of decency. [Lyke] did it on purpose.”

Not only did Lyke have the aforementioned two deputies taken into "custody," he's has threatened FOUR other deputies with contempt for not following his directives - all of which run contrary to established security protocols and sheriff office policies.

And almost no one is standing up for the deputies - not Dart, and certainly not Bee-atch.

There ought to be a job action by the deputies and the Teamsters. And a formal complaint with the ARDC or whoever oversees judicial misbehavior. And then, a lawsuit.

How Many Years?

There's definitely a memo floating around about judicial sentencing in Cook County:

• A 68-year-old Chicago man has been sentenced to 76 years in federal prison for robbing or attempting to rob four downtown banks over two months in 2023 while he was on supervised release for previous bank robbery convictions. Prosecutors had asked for “only” 20 years.

  Joseph Donelson Jr. committed the four crimes just months after being released from prison for an earlier series of bank robberies, prosecutors said, adding that during the 2023 spree, Donelson jumped onto a teller counter during one attempted robbery, pointed a “gun-like object” at a teller during another robbery and struck a teller in the face with the object during a fourth incident.

So pretty much a life sentence for this old fart.

Glad to see it, but this kind of sentencing probably won't last past the elections. 

Release the Demons!

Another non-demonized yute, out on bail despite numerous charges, once again commits a murder:

• A judge this week sentenced a man to 40 years in prison for murdering a beloved Hyde Park bartender while he had three felony cases pending in juvenile court, two involving illegal gun possession and one involving armed carjacking.

  But Keante McShan, 23, may have even more prison time ahead of him. Court records show he is preparing to enter a plea next week in an unrelated kidnapping case.

  Surveillance video allegedly showed McShan checking parked car doors in the area of the 4900 block of South Greenwood Avenue to see if they were unlocked before he spotted Diego Damis, 41, who was walking home after his shift at The Cove Lounge around 5 a.m. on February 25, 2022.

  Prosecutors said McShan approached Damis, stabbed him repeatedly, and took his wallet, cash, and bank card. Video showed Damis kneeling on the grass next to the sidewalk as the attacker ran away. He then fell backward and remained there for more than an hour until a passerby discovered him and called for help.

Just tossing this out there, but you know where criminals can't (usually) get guns?

• in jail, awaiting trial

But this turd had two UUW charges AND a carjacking charge, but still managed to end up on the street with an additional gun. Funny how that works. 

Another EM Failure

Anyone not see this coming? Again?

• A man accused of trying to ignite a Molotov cocktail at a CTA bus stop has been missing for weeks after a Cook County judge denied prosecutors’ request to keep him in jail, court records show. Three other judges have now signed arrest warrants for 27-year-old Marshun Kimber, who remains at large.

  Judge Kelly McCarthy released Kimber on an ankle monitor on July 30 despite a warning from an assistant state’s attorney that he posed a danger to the public and could be a flight risk, according to a transcript of the detention hearing. Within days, on August 4, prosecutors filed a motion alleging a violation of his electronic monitoring conditions, records show, but Kimber never showed in court for a judge to consider the matter.

But don't worry - there are THREE separate warrants out for his arrest:

• On August 4, prosecutors filed a motion alleging that Kimber had, in fact, violated the terms of his electronic monitoring. McCarthy entered their motion and scheduled it for consideration on August 7. Judge Pablo DeCastro heard it that day and signed an arrest warrant, according to court records. Judge Martin Moltz signed another warrant on August 10. And Judge Barbara Dawkins issued another warrant on Monday, according to court records.

Someone tell Bailey no one want to hear about abortion, they want to hear what politicians are doing about repeat criminals being released into the communities to continue robbing, pillaging and terrorizing victims.

Because democrats ain't doing shit. 

Another Crooked Judge

Another incident that would make a series of campaign commercials that write themselves....but no one in the Bailey organization seems to bother making:

• A Cook County judge released a woman on electronic monitoring Saturday despite allegations that she rear-ended a motorcyclist on Lake Shore Drive while drunk, then dumped what appeared to be a liquor bottle in Lake Michigan, leaving the rider fatally injured on the pavement.

  Judge D’Anthony Thedford denied a request from prosecutors to detain Miracle Hall, 25, ahead of trial on charges of aggravated DUI causing a fatal accident, instead sending her home on an ankle monitor. It marks the second time this month that Thedford declined to detain a defendant accused of drunk driving in a fatal crash. On August 11, he released a man accused of fleeing the scene of a fatal crash in Lakeview while the victim’s body remained inside his vehicle.

Read that part again:

• ...[Thedford] released a man accused of fleeing the scene of a fatal crash in Lakeview while the victim’s body remained inside his vehicle.

And that still wasn't enough for this piece of shit judge to hold the offender in custody.

Does anyone know if CWB has a running list of crap judges and the cases they're involved in that are inflicting repeat criminals upon the public? We would gladly post that list on a near daily basis to encourage voters to finally take some control of their government again. 

Is Crimesha in Trouble?

Usually, this would be an investigation working its way up the ladder....but to what end now?

• The woman who served as Kim Foxx’s top assistant in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office must sit for an under-oath deposition to explain why her office decided not to object to people convicted of murder receiving certificates of innocence even though Foxx personally believed some of the recipients were guilty.

  Foxx herself gave a sworn deposition in April and made the stunning revelation that she personally believed two exonerated men whose certificates of innocence were not opposed by her administration were, in fact, guilty of “a heinous act of murder.”

  But during her deposition, Foxx often said she did not know the details of exoneration cases or how her office investigated and determined whether to challenge certificates of innocence, legal documents that mean an exonerated person is actually innocent of a crime. Those matters, Foxx said, were under the purview of the office’s number-two executive, then-First Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Risa Lanier.

That sounds like Crimesha pretty much tossed Lanier under the bus there, so Lanier has no reason to lie for Crimesha moving forward.

The trouble is, Lanier was instrumental in the deal that freed the French actor Juicy Smollet and sealed the records from public view....until the whole thing blew up all over Crimesha....like a large root beer beverage.

It isn't exactly clear what the goal of these depositions will be because it's the City of Chicago demanding sworn testimony from Lanier and how certain decisions were arrived at. It seems like it may be an effort to fight some of the "project innocence" payouts?

Really Eileen?

We don't know if she is just catching up or this is some political posturing for a run at higher office:

• Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke is asking Illinois residents to contact their state legislators and push for an overhaul of the state’s electronic monitoring law.

  “The whole system right now is broken and it needs a legislative fix,” Burke said in a wide-ranging interview with Landon Campbell posted to YouTube on Sunday. “So, I’m going to be asking you and everybody you know and everybody who’s listening to this to please reach out to your legislators and tell them that you do not believe that violent criminals should be on electronic monitoring. They should not and we can work out an agreement with the legislators of okay, where do we draw the line?”

  Burke said electronic monitoring was never intended to function as an alternative to detention for people accused of violent crimes.

  “Electronic monitoring first came about when we were under a bond system and it was a way if somebody didn’t have the money to make bond but they weren’t a dangerous person you could put them on electronic monitoring,” Burke said.

  But the system has evolved, Burke said, while the law governing it has created a series of problems that become more consequential when defendants accused of violent crimes are placed on monitoring.

Seriously, this has been covered here how often? For how long?

And CWB has led the way with documenting:

• 87 people charged with murder or attempted murder free on EM
• 181 defendants charged with sexual assault roaming the streets
• and over 300 people missing from EM - as in no one knows where they are

Don't get us wrong, we're more than happy to see O'Neill Burke on board with what we've been broadcasting for years, but please don't pretend it's something you just noticed now. 

It's actually the reason you got elected over Prickwrinkle's hand picked moron.

Can't Let Go

Some people just have to hang on:

• The Illinois Supreme Court has announced the appointment of Cook County Circuit Judge Timothy C. Evans to the First District Appellate Court.

  Judge Evans has served on the bench since 1992 when he was elected to the Circuit Court of Cook County.

  Evans was elected as Chief Judge of the Circuit Court in 2001, becoming the first Black person to serve as Chief Judge.

  Evans, age 83, will fill the vacancy created when Justice Terrence J. Lavin retired in March of this year.

He's older than the last two presidents and there were calls from both sides saying that each should have stepped down when it was politically advantageous. 

But here's Timmy, hanging on, sitting in judgement of all sorts of important issues, unable to just enjoy his massive "earnings" after a quarter of a century presiding over one of the more crooked systems in existence.

Vallas Commentary

As long time readers are aware, this is our only social media presence. We don't have any other accounts and yes we're aware there are others out there that use the same name we do....but it isn't us.

It isn't likely we'd expand our footprint, so we're mostly reliant on people sending us interesting posts from other authors. This particular one was either from The Contrarian's or Paul Vallas's X Account. Since Vallas writes for the Contrarian, it gets confusing sometimes and our emailer wasn't clear:

• You can’t make this up.
  
  
  Just the latest in a string of settlements involving hundreds of criminals who actually committed the crimes for which they were convicted and incarcerated, many were released and granted “Certificates of Innocence” by Kim Foxx. The COIs helped them secure multimillion dollar civil settlements.
  
  
  Foxx admitted in a recent deposition she believed evidence existed suggesting Gabriel Solache and Arturo Reyes were both guilty of the heinous Bucktown murders. Mejia, a co-conspirator in the crime who procured Solache and Reyes services and never retracted her testimony of their involvement remains in jail.
  
  
  These cases have cost hundreds of millions and will cost hundreds of millions more. It is important to note half of those released and half the cash settlements for “wrongful convictions” occurred in county while Foxx was in office.
  
  
  For the cottage industry of advocates and trial lawyers who claim this was justice reform, explain this warped justice that has rewarded hundreds of millions of dollars to vicious criminals and their trial lawyers, to the families of the victims who were overwhelmingly Black or Hispanic.
  
  
  Meanwhile the media reinforces this narrative that these settlements are all because of police misconduct, portraying these criminals as victims and even sometimes heroes and their lawyers as civil rights advocates.
  
  
  This demands a US Justice Department investigation.

Foxxx really needs to be prosecuted for Official Misconduct at some level - there's no statute of limitations on it in Illinois, and she was actively playing for the other team - elected to PROSECUTE criminals, but making up Laws to make it impossible to successfully charge, try and imprison felons along with the "Certificates of Innocence" bullshit that is costing taxpayers hundreds of millions.

But she's part of the crooked system here, so that's unlikely.

Tracking SAFE-T Act Failures

This "transparency" thing seems to be a serious self-own:

• A newly released report shows that 10% of the people enrolled in the Cook County court’s electronic monitoring (EM) program were missing as of June 1, the latest disclosure in what Chief Judge Charles Beach has described as a renewed transparency effort following the killing of an on-duty Chicago police officer and the critical wounding of his partner by an EM escapee in April.

  But the program continues to be plagued by high-profile failures, including recent revelations by CWBChicago that a 10-time felon who was supposed to be confined to his home while wearing an ankle monitor was found in Gov. JB Pritzker’s backyard. And another man, alleged by federal authorities to be a member of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, is charged with kidnapping and murdering an 18-year-old man while wearing one of the chief judge’s monitoring devices.

The only reason the "high-profile failure" even see the light of day is the outstanding reporting of the CWB blog - no other media outlet is doing it. And the number of "low profile" escapees is likely in the hundreds....many hundreds.

Something that should be spotlighted by persons running for higher office on a daily basis.

Nice Court System Toni

Is there a bigger failure around that Prickwrinkle's Cook County Courts?

• Two teenage boys with active arrest warrants are facing robbery charges after Chicago police said they took part in an attack on a woman in the Loop on Sunday night.

  The 38-year-old woman told police she was in the 100 block of North Wabash Avenue around 11:10 p.m. when she was confronted by as many as seven young males and females who took her bag and money, according to a preliminary police report.

  Officers searched the area and eventually located two people believed to be involved, police said. A 17-year-old boy was arrested at 12:12 a.m. Monday, followed by the arrest of a 16-year-old boy at 1:32 a.m., both in the Loop.

  Police said both boys face robbery charges, and the 17-year-old is also charged with unlawful possession of a weapon. Both had active arrest warrants at the time of their arrests, according to police.

Running a close second is Fata$$'s corrections system:

• A Chicago man who avoided serving any prison time after pleading guilty to a felony gun case in March is now behind bars after prosecutors said he committed two residential burglaries while on parole— and while wearing an Illinois Department of Corrections ankle monitor.

  Cortez Washington, 19, cut a sweet deal in March. He pleaded guilty to a felony gun case and a reduced misdemenaor charge in an auto theft case in exchange for an 18-month prison sentence that was satisfied entirely by 264 days he spent in the county jail. Prosecutors now say Washington squandered that opportunity in less than three months.

Between the SAFE-T Act, the "no cash bail" disaster, and the crooked Parole Board that is incapable of seeing that past behavior is the SINGLE BIGGEST INDICATOR of recidivism, it's a wonder that anyone is ever actually in a prison.

And it's an even bigger wonder that republicans don't run on this issue and hammer the crap out of democrats. 

Again?

How incompetent are Cook county officials? This incompetent:

• Property tax bills usually sent out in July will once again be delayed, according to Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.

  Preckwinkle, who announced the two-month delay Tuesday, said she intends to reopen a no-interest loan program for government bodies that rely on the property tax revenue they now won’t get on time.

  Suburban tax districts, such as schools and libraries, that would otherwise need to take out pricey short-term loans to cover their budgets can instead borrow from the county’s $300 million Property Tax Bridge Fund Program, Preckwinkle said. That program mirrors one put in place last year when tax bills were delayed four months due to a computer issue.

Guess who isn't eligible to participate in Prickwrinkle's program?

• Chicago Public Schools, however, would not be eligible for that loan program. That could be a problem for CPS, which last year paid $220,000 in interest per day on short-term loans it took out to make payroll.

  CPS officials said last year’s tax bill delay has forced them to take out at least $1.6 billion in short-term loans for operating expenses and another $246 million loan to keep its teachers pension fund solvent — making for $33 million in interest payments down the line.

Don't worry though - Conehead will figure out some way to stick it to Chicago taxpayers at the behest of his political masters.

This could be a good thing though - getting the tax bills so close to election season might remind people exactly why Chicago, Cook County and Illinois are in such bad financial shape. 

It's the democrats.

Brain Damaged?

Certainly seems to know what he's doing, where he's at, and what he might need to do inside:

 

Word is that judges Lyke and Thedford have been roaming the halls of 26th Street attempting to get him put on Electronic Monitoring because it's obviously dangerous in Cook County Jail if inmates feel the need to carry weapons inside.

Good thing no one startled him in the shower, right alderwitch Hadden? 

Another Crooked DEI Judge

Many judicial careers need to come to an end - here's another one:

• When prosecutors ask a judge to detain someone during their first appearance on a new felony charge at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse in Chicago, the judge will side with prosecutors nearly 7 out of 10 times. That is, unless prosecutors are asking Judge D’Anthony Thedford.

  Thedford, who began hearing pretrial cases at 26th Street on February 5, sides with defendants more than half the time. And in recent weeks, he has sided with defendants nearly six out of 10 times, court records show.

  Appointed to the bench in 2024, Thedford started in the Traffic Division, but Cook County’s new Chief Judge, Charles Beach, reassigned him to the Pretrial Division in January, and Thedford began hearing cases on February 5.

Ah yes, another one of judge Bitch's Beach's completely qualified picks.

• The primary difference between Thedford and the other nine judges who actively hear cases in the 26th Street Pretrial Division is that Thedford is far more likely to release people facing firearms possession charges, even if they are convicted felons.

  Another difference: For most judges in the Pretrial Division, being accused of committing a violent crime on the CTA qualifies defendants for detention as a public safety threat. For Thedford, that line is not so clearly drawn.

CWB has a whole series of cases where he just lets people go on the 100% effective Electronic Monitoring program, even for repeat gun felons and especially for CTA crimes - almost like he wants the CTA to become completely unrideable. 

Hopefully, the CWB blog is keeping a list of incompetent judges and a couple of examples of their incompetence that we can help publicize closer to Election Day.