* Since the governor has been talking about crime lately, this just came in over the transom…
JOHN PAYNE
Pritzker Granted Early Release To A Violent Drug Dealer Who Was Quickly Arrested Again On A Class X Felony
On June 4, 2020, The Illinois Department Of Corrections Granted Early Release To John Payne.
(Illinois Department of Corrections, Accessed 1/5/22)
• The Department Of Corrections Granted Payne Earned Discretionary Sentence Credit. (Illinois Department of Corrections, Accessed 1/5/22)
Payne Was Charged In 2018 With Armed Violence, A Class X Felony, As Well As Delivery Of A Controlled Substance And Unlawful Possession Of A Firearm. (People of Illinois v. John K. Payne, 7th Judicial Circuit Court, Case #2018-CF-000833, Filed 7/31/18)
Payne Ultimately Pled Guilty To Reduced Charges And Was Sentenced To Five Years In Prison.
(People of Illinois v. John K. Payne, 7th Judicial Circuit Court, Case #2018-CF-000833, Filed 7/31/18)
In August 2020, Payne Was Arrested In Sangamon County And Charged With Armed Violence, A Class X Felony, As Well As Unlawful Use Of A Weapon And Delivery Of A Controlled Substance.
(People of Illinois v. John K. Payne, 7th Judicial Circuit Court, Case #2020-CF-000881, Filed 9/2/20)
Payne Ultimately Pled Guilty To Reduced Charges And Was Sentenced To Six Years In Prison.
(People of Illinois v. John K. Payne, 7th Judicial Circuit Court, Case #2020-CF-000881, Filed 9/2/20)
Payne pleaded guilty in 2019 to manufacture/delivery of a controlled substance and possession of a firearm without a FOID card, both class 3 felonies. He was let out a year later during the pandemic under an optional (Earned Discretionary Sentence Credit) and was busted again, but his lawyer pleaded those charges down to two concurrent six-year terms for UUW and manufacture/delivery of a controlled substance.
* From the governor’s office…
John Payne pleaded guilty in 2019 to a non-violent offense, and the Department of Corrections followed all existing policies and procedures in determining sentence and programming credit. The Department cannot unilaterally determine that he is subject to policies and procedures for violent offenders when the court system – including his defense attorney, prosecutors and a judge – adjudicated him as nonviolent.
* From the Pritzker campaign…
Richard Irvin’s desperate deflections make one thing clear: he is unwilling and unable to talk about his own record. Try as he may to deflect, the truth is as follows: Irvin spent 15 years profiting off of telling domestic abusers how he would keep them out of jail and brazenly advertising his time as a prosecutor as the reason he could help them escape accountability for their crimes.
* Meanwhile, Richard Irvin talked about what the state could do about crime during his interview with WBBM radio…
One of the first things we got to do is repeal many of the things in the oppressive, that terrible legislation that Pritzker just signed that he calls a crime bill, which is not actually a crime bill at all because it doesn’t address crime. What it does, it prevents police officers from doing their job. You know, Pritzker doesn’t care about crime. If he did, he wouldn’t have signed that bill.
This bill that says that if a person is arrested for violent crime, they’re immediately released. There is no bond. That’s unheard of. That destroys our system, our criminal justice system.
The same bill says that those individuals the police just arrested after they bond after they get out with no bond, they can go make an anonymous complaint against a police officer without any repercussion, ruining a police officers life, which makes it hard for us to recruit good people that want to be the police.
This bill also says that if someone comes on your property or your residence or your business, that the police don’t even have the authority to arrest them, all they can do is give them a traffic ticket for their for their violation. That’s not someone that cares about crime.
Since he signed this crime bill, crime has gone up substantially in the state of Illinois. In Cook County alone, there’s been over 1000 murders, 800 of them in Chicago. Let me put that in perspective. New York, which is three times the size of Chicago, had 500 murders. Los Angeles, which is a million more than Chicago, had 400 murders. Yet, Chicago had its most dangerous year in murders, the largest murder rate in this whole country, and the most dangerous in 25 years.
This isn’t a governor that cares about the state. This is a governor that doesn’t care about police. As a matter of fact, let me tell you what happened in this last year since he signed that bill, eight police officers have been murdered in the line of duty, eight of them. The last one a woman Sergeant Rittmanic. She begged for her life on her own video as she was shot and killed with her own gun. That’s not a governor that cares about police.
Now as governor, I’ll make sure I have the police’s back, they’ll know that I have their back just like the police in Aurora know that I have their back. Any police department throughout the state needs to know their governor steps up for them and the Illinois State Police needs to know that their governor actually looks out for them and cares about the men and women in blue that put their life on the line for us every single day. That’s not JB Pritzker. But that will definitely be under an Irvin/Bourne administration.
Whew. That’s some pretty intense rhetoric, but he also said something pretty darned false when he claimed people arrested for a violent crime would be “immediately released” under a law that hasn’t taken effect yet.
* Click here and scroll down for the law. Anyone can be held pre-trial if they are charged with a multitude of crimes, including “a forcible felony offense for which a sentence of imprisonment, without probation, periodic imprisonment or conditional discharge, is required by law upon conviction, and it is alleged that the defendant’s pretrial release poses a specific, real and present threat to any person or the community.”
Alleged stalkers, domestic batterers and most sex offenders can be held. Also, people alleged to have committed crimes like aggravated and reckless discharge of a firearm; armed habitual criminals; manufacture, sale or transfer of bullets or shells represented to be armor piercing bullets, dragon’s breath shotgun shells, bolo shells or flechette shells; unlawful sale or delivery of firearms, including on school grounds, or where there’s a liquor license; unlawful purchase of a firearm, gunrunning, firearms trafficking, involuntary servitude, involuntary sexual servitude of a minor, trafficking in persons, Non-probationable violations: (i) unlawful use or possession of weapons by felons or persons in the Custody of the Department of Corrections facilities (Section 24-1.1), (ii) aggravated unlawful use of a weapon (Section 24-1.6, or (iii) aggravated possession of a stolen firearm (Section 24-3.9); the person has a high likelihood of willful flight to avoid prosecution and is charged with any felony described [above] or a felony offense other than a Class 4 offense.
* From the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault…
Pre-Trial Detention Hearing
* Only when petitioned for by the State
* Victim entitled to notice of hearing
* Immediately at first appearance, or if continuance requested within 48 hours for most felonies or 24 hours for Class 4 felonies and misdemeanors
* If defense seeks to call victim to testify, it must petition court for permission, which is only granted if court finds by clear and convincing evidence that defendant will be materially prejudiced unless victim testifies
There’s more.
* Also, I’ve said this countless times, but police departments throughout the state allow people to anonymously report crimes.
- Immigrants Welcome - Thursday, Feb 3, 22 @ 2:45 pm:
Sounds like John Payne had a damn good defense attorney. Wonder if Richard Irvin would have taken him as a client?
- Chicago Blue - Thursday, Feb 3, 22 @ 2:50 pm:
Chicago wasn’t even in the top 25 cities in murder rate last year. For folks doubting his Republican credentials, he lies as well as their most recent President and current standard-bearer.
- Perfect Blue - Thursday, Feb 3, 22 @ 2:52 pm:
Would be a great hit against the Guv…. if Irvin’s career wasn’t defending those type of criminals.
Govs campaign completely dodges the hit, but when it’s such a hypocritical hit from Irvin, the dodge works.
Gotta come up with better stuff Irvin & co.
- Real - Thursday, Feb 3, 22 @ 2:56 pm:
You gotta do better Ken Duncan 2.0
Hopefully you are reading.
- Lincoln Lad - Thursday, Feb 3, 22 @ 2:58 pm:
I’m wondering how JB is responsible for the crime in the other major cities across the country experiencing similar increases in crime? IMO, another swing and miss by the Irvin campaign. I’m sensing a pretty lame launch to this campaign… is it the campaign or the candidate?
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Feb 3, 22 @ 3:00 pm:
===Ken Duncan===
It’s Dunkin. The misspelling is a pet peeve of mine.
- Get real - Thursday, Feb 3, 22 @ 3:01 pm:
Armed violence is rarely a violent crime.
- Chambananon - Thursday, Feb 3, 22 @ 3:03 pm:
I take it Irvin never had a recidivist client with a violent offense, then? Because surely that would be anathema to him, based upon all of this…
- Roman - Thursday, Feb 3, 22 @ 3:03 pm:
To the Oppo Dump…
Jason Van Dyke’s release has provided us with a valuable criminal justice/civics lesson. In Illinois, since the elimination of parole, most prisoners only serve half their sentence (first degree murder and a few other convictions require longer service time.)
Unless JB has quietly instituted a special early release program, ala Pat Quinn’s MGT Push, I’m not sure this oppo will stick.
- Long year - Thursday, Feb 3, 22 @ 3:05 pm:
Maybe we gotta get some reporters to fact check these lies in real time.
- JoanP - Thursday, Feb 3, 22 @ 3:05 pm:
= Pritzker Granted Early Release To A Violent Drug Dealer =
And here I expected to read something about the Governor commuting a sentence. Instead, I read that the Department of Corrections released someone when he was supposed to be released, based on the sentence he received.
A sentence, by the way, imposed by a Republican judge.
- Dotnonymous - Thursday, Feb 3, 22 @ 3:10 pm:
Q. Do you have one answer to cover all questions?
A. They told me to say crime.
- Arsenal - Thursday, Feb 3, 22 @ 3:10 pm:
==the police in Aurora know that I have their back==
I wonder how true this is. Police generally hate the mayor, which says more about them than the mayor, but especially given that he’s a practicing criminal defense attorney, I just don’t know if Aurora Police really feel like he’s their ally.
- Pundent - Thursday, Feb 3, 22 @ 3:13 pm:
There’s no doubt that crime is a nationwide problem. But the accusations against Pritzker strain credibility. I have not doubt that they will be believed by the base. Frankly they’ve shown me that they’ll believe just about anything. But if Irvin’s goal in all of this is to win over educated, suburban voters, he’s going to have to do a lot better. His misrepresentations here are beyond laughable.
- Precinct Captain - Thursday, Feb 3, 22 @ 3:14 pm:
So the people who don’t believe in FOID cards believe a person should be locked up because they didn’t have a FOID card? The hypocrisy knows no bounds.
- SWSider - Thursday, Feb 3, 22 @ 3:15 pm:
Don’t love that the more reasonable party on issues of crime and justice is attacking him for being a defense attorney.
I’m already worried about a backlash to the significant progress made. Having the Dem party attack a defense attorney for helping people “escape accountability” is certainly only going to galvanize more people into believing that the reason we are where we are is because we’re too soft on crime. It’ll probably work, but pyrrhic victory and all that.
- Arsenal - Thursday, Feb 3, 22 @ 3:17 pm:
==But if Irvin’s goal in all of this is to win over educated, suburban voters, he’s going to have to do a lot better.==
I think there’s a lot of value in his “tough on crime” rhetoric in the suburbs, but if he doesn’t have a deft touch on it it could severely cap him in Chicago.
- Arsenal - Thursday, Feb 3, 22 @ 3:19 pm:
Also, now that I think about it…isn’t it weird for a mayor of a relatively big city to still be a practicing criminal defense attorney? Am I missing part of the story here? Seems like rolling out the red carpet for a lot of messy conflicts.
- Tomorrow is yesterday - Thursday, Feb 3, 22 @ 3:23 pm:
A trial attorney may be the best candidate for JB. I’m guessing finding all the cases Irvin and his law firm had and helped people win their case will be some good Oppo dumping.
If Crime is going to be the big issue in Nov having the GOP standard bearer getting criminals off is just too easy. They’ll want to say State’s Attorney but they don’t get to decide the narrative.
- Donnie Elgin - Thursday, Feb 3, 22 @ 3:27 pm:
“Chicago wasn’t even in the top 25 cities in murder rate last year”
Well, that’s certainly an optimistic way of looking at the disastrous 2021 crime stats for Chicago. Don’t take my word for it …
2021 Ends as Chicago’s Deadliest Year in a Quarter Century
“The year of 2021 ended as one of the most violent on record in Chicago, as a rise in the number of shootings left more people dead than in any single year in a quarter-century…
According to the department, 2021 ended with 797 homicides. That is 25 more than were recorded 2020, 299 more than in 2019 and the most since 1996… there were 3,561 shooting incidents in 2021, which is 1415 more shooting incidents than were recorded in the city in 2019″
https://tinyurl.com/3k6u3f2y
- Responsa - Thursday, Feb 3, 22 @ 3:28 pm:
Crime and approach to crime is going to be a big, big issue in the upcoming election. The candidate who best shows he is on the same wavelength as the concerned populace will benefit.
- Arsenal - Thursday, Feb 3, 22 @ 3:50 pm:
==Well, that’s certainly an optimistic way of looking at the disastrous 2021 crime stats for Chicago. Don’t take my word for it …==
I think the point is that it’s a nationwide epidemic, so blaming it on a single piece of legislation and the Governor’s insufficient affection for his state makes little sense.
- Pundent - Thursday, Feb 3, 22 @ 3:54 pm:
=I think the point is that it’s a nationwide epidemic=
I would agree. And if your going to claim that Pritzker is advocating the immediate release violent criminals with no bond, you better be able to back it up. Otherwise your claims of being tough on crime won’t be taken seriously.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Feb 3, 22 @ 4:06 pm:
==Otherwise your claims of being tough on crime won’t be taken seriously. ==
Well, they still might be. “Tough on crime” is about style, not facts. And crime will remain a vulnerability for the Dems, as crime is rising while they’re in power. Governors Own.
But we here needn’t pretend that there’s merit to the silly argument that a spike in crime is caused by a law that hasn’t even taken effect yet.
- Arsenal - Thursday, Feb 3, 22 @ 4:14 pm:
Anon @ 4:06 was me. Sorry, fam.
- JS Mill - Thursday, Feb 3, 22 @ 5:28 pm:
=I have their back just like the police in Aurora know that I have their back=
Unless I am paid to do otherwise as a trial attorney.
I will just leave that there…
- watchdog - Thursday, Feb 3, 22 @ 6:27 pm:
If Mayor Irvin represented criminal defendants in cases involving the Aurora Police after being elected to the Council or as Mayor, he probably violated the attorney disciplinary rule on conflicts. On the website of his firm, Pedersen & Irvin, Ltd., the only attorney listed now is Brittany Pedersen.
- JoanP - Thursday, Feb 3, 22 @ 8:38 pm:
= On the website of his firm, Pedersen & Irvin, Ltd., the only attorney listed now is Brittany Pedersen. =
That’s a very sad website. Attorney “bio’s”? “Juries Doctor”?