On Nov. 3, 2015, Crosetti Brand forced his way into the home of his former girlfriend, placed a gun to her chin, choked her, threatened her 15-year-old son and stole her car. For these crimes, Brand was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Brand was released from prison in October 2023 but immediately returned to prison after violating an order of protection related to a second victim, Laterria Smith. Prior to Brand’s second release from prison, Smith sought an emergency order of protection against him. A Cook County judge denied her request. Brand was released on March 12, 2024. The following day, Brand allegedly attempted to kill Smith and murdered her 11-year-old son, Jayden Perkins.
On Oct. 3, Constantin Beldie allegedly attacked his estranged wife, Lacramioara, and tried to kidnap her. Beldie was charged with attempted kidnapping and aggravated battery, but a Cook County judge refused to detain Beldie pending trial. Beldie is now accused of attacking Lacramiora on the street and stabbing her to death.
These are just two of dozens of egregious examples of judges unleashing dangerous and lawless individuals onto the streets of Illinois resulting in numerous additional violent crimes.
The Safe-T Act is largely to blame for the ill-advised release of these dangerous criminals pending trial, and I exhort Illinois legislative and judicial leaders to take the following actions:
- Create a panel of Illinois criminal law experts including experienced prosecutors, and recommend essential amendments to the Safe-T Act. The original goal of the act was to end cash bail so that low-income individuals charged with nonviolent minor offenses would not be detained in jail pending trial. I take no issue with ending cash bail. Unfortunately, the current version of the act is a failed experiment and has resulted in perilous and unforeseen consequences. The act encourages judges to bend over backward to release repeat offenders. I believe the act does not allow judges to consider the criminal backgrounds of most felony offenders and thus encourages judges to release offenders despite lengthy criminal backgrounds, resulting in additional violent crimes. This panel should address the act as a whole and do so with the intent of ensuring the safety of the citizens of Illinois.
- Amend the Safe-T Act to provide judges the discretion to detain any individual charged with a Class A misdemeanor or above based on the facts of the charged case and the defendant’s criminal background. Currently, in my view, judges have no discretion to detain anyone charged with a Class A misdemeanor (like a battery), Class 4 felonies and many Class 3 and Class 2 felonies no matter how bad the defendant’s criminal background is. For example, last week in New York City, a mentally ill man with numerous prior misdemeanor arrests is accused of stabbing three innocent pedestrians to death. Disturbingly, this tragedy could easily occur in Illinois due to the lack of judicial discretion under the Safe-T-Act. It makes no sense that the Safe-T-Act prevents judges from considering a defendant’s prior record when determining whether to detain him pending trial. In effect, a convicted murderer who completed his sentence and parole and then steals a car or batters someone cannot easily be detained under our current law. A defendant convicted of three armed robberies who serves his entire sentence and then steals a car or batters someone cannot easily be detained under the current law. In short, our current policy is outrageous.
- Under the current act, judges have no discretion to detain a defendant unless the state’s attorney files a petition to detain. Experienced judges who determine that particular defendants pose sufficient threats to the public should have the authority to detain such offenders or, at a minimum, have the authority to direct state’s attorneys to file petitions to detain or require the state’s attorneys to state the reasons for not filing petitions to detain.
- Under the current act, if a defendant fails to appear at a scheduled court date or fails to comply with conditions of pretrial release, judges have the discretion to issue an arrest warrant or issue a summons to the defendants. In Cook County, clerks are mailing out “notice to appear” postcards to individuals charged with felonies. We should amend the Safe-T-Act and end the “postcard policy.” The so-called postcard policy is ridiculous. If bringing a felon to justice is only worth a postcard, how can law enforcement be taken seriously?
- Finally, all judges statewide should be trained to understand the importance of protecting the public from lawless offenders and how to avoid scenarios like the Beldie and Brand cases.
Robert J. Milan, a career prosecutor, is the former first assistant state’s attorney of Cook County and a former assistant U.S. attorney and currently is a special state’s attorney of Cook County and leads the investigations practice for Prescient, an international consulting firm.
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