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This has to change

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Illinois

* Rap sheet for a gang member suspect in a recent Northwest Side murder…

Court records show he was found guilty of robbery in 2009 and sentenced to boot camp at the Cook County Jail.

In early 2011, he went to prison on a four-year sentence for possession of a stolen vehicle. He was paroled in August 2012.

In 2013, the man violated his parole when he was arrested on a charge of being a felon in possession of a gun.

He was sent back to prison for three months to complete his stolen vehicle sentence as he awaited trial on the gun charge.

In January 2014, Judge Nicholas Ford sentenced him to a three-year sentence on the gun charge. He was paroled in that case in March 2015.

Then he violated his parole in that case by associating with gang members. Judge William Raines sentenced him to jail for two days.

In October 2015, he violated his parole again when he was arrested for reckless conduct and associating with gang members.

He was sent back to prison and was released on parole in January 2016.

Rosenau also was convicted of three felonies, including robbery in 2005; burglary in 2007; and aggravated battery on a police officer in 2012. He was sentenced to three years in prison for that crime, court records show.

Mr. Obvious: We have locked up too many people for stupid reasons, while too many bad guys are set loose and are walking around free.

I don’t know what the specific answer is, but we’re doing something very wrong here.

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, May 4, 16 @ 2:07 pm

Comments

You are naive if you think this rap sheet is anything out of the ordinary.

Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, May 4, 16 @ 2:12 pm
I don’t understand how people like this are let walk, while people arrested on non-violent drug charges get 20+ year sentences.

Comment by Night Rider Wednesday, May 4, 16 @ 2:25 pm
The problem is that our prisons are overflowing with people who are not dangerous but who were given insanely long sentences, to the point that dangerous people are being let go.

Comment by Soccermom Wednesday, May 4, 16 @ 2:33 pm
Mandatory minimums for illegal gun possession without the possibility of sentencing restriction. If NYS can lock up NFL players for such an offense, the state of IL should and could do it for our run of the mill miscreants.

Comment by RoscoeRatMatt Wednesday, May 4, 16 @ 2:42 pm
Is his record that bad? Possession of Stolen Car is his only real independent crime. After that everything is a knock-on effect of the judicial system.

Comment by Stephen Boisvert Wednesday, May 4, 16 @ 2:46 pm
That’s what happens when Politicians like Dart and Precwinkle claim society is unjustly imprisoning people of color. We can’t even begin to solve this problem if we can’t even have a logical discussion of the root cause of this problem without being immediately labeled a racist.

Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, May 4, 16 @ 2:48 pm
“In January 2014, Judge Nicholas Ford sentenced him to a three-year sentence on the gun charge. He was paroled in that case in March 2015.”

If you are a convicted felon why worry about being caught with a gun when the worst punishment you face is 15 months in the slammer. This sentence for this crime should be at least 25 years with no time off for good behavior.

Comment by CapnCrunch Wednesday, May 4, 16 @ 2:49 pm
==Is his record that bad? ==

Nope.

But he was repeatedly imprisoned anyway.

I guess it didn’t help.

Comment by crazybleedingheart Wednesday, May 4, 16 @ 2:54 pm
simply giving the title of the crime and calling it a felony does very little to describe what conduct was actually involved. Some of this is cop subjective “associating w/ gang”, for example. This may well be a piling on or a serious felon, but one cannot evaluate from this information.

Comment by D.P.Gumby Wednesday, May 4, 16 @ 2:54 pm
This isn’t unusual at all. I see records like this every day in the small Southern Illinois counties I cover.

Right now we have a guy with seven outstanding felony cases against him dating back to 2012 and four DUI cases outstanding against him dating back to 2011 … none of them have been adjudicated.
He gets out on bond ($25k cash last time) and gets popped again before he goes to trial on the earlier charges.

Comment by transplant Wednesday, May 4, 16 @ 2:58 pm
end prohibition er i mean the war on sin, legalize drugs and free up huge resources and make money on taxes; just like alcohol and oxy sales.

Comment by Ghost Wednesday, May 4, 16 @ 3:12 pm
There is a mandatory minimum of 5 years in the federal prison for any felon convicted of possession of a weapon. That would be in addition to any time under state law. Why not just take these guys who are convicted under state law and hand them over to the Feds.
Does ANYONE know of the last time the Feds have convicted some gang banger of possession of a weapon by a felon? They do not need more gun laws if they do not enforce the ones they have.

Comment by DuPage Saint Wednesday, May 4, 16 @ 3:20 pm
The judges in cook county have been intimitated by the county president and seem to be scared to really sentence people properly. Felons in possession of firearms on parole is a very serious offense. Time and time again we read that another felon on parole is involved with murder and mayhem. It probably wont change anytime soon in this political climate.

Comment by Regular democrat Wednesday, May 4, 16 @ 3:29 pm
@DuPage Saint -

You can’t just “hand [someone] over” to the Feds. If you get a state conviction, you do state time. If you want someone to do federal time, they’ve got to be convicted of a FEDERAL charge. The U.S. Attorney’s office tends not to want to bother with low-level gang bangers.

Comment by JoanP Wednesday, May 4, 16 @ 3:44 pm
==- Regular democrat - Wednesday, May 4, 16 @ 3:29 pm==

It’s amazing that Toni Preckwinkle’s power is so magnificent and powerful that BEFORE she was even County Board President she could have this guy sentenced to boot camp! She is rivaling Madigan!

Comment by Precinct Captain Wednesday, May 4, 16 @ 3:47 pm
Soccermom is correct. There is plenty of room for serious repeat offenders in the prison system. Make the room needed by NOT imprisoning low level mopes

Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, May 4, 16 @ 3:49 pm
Night rider - no one is in an Illinois prison for 20+ years for a non violent drug offense. In the federal system - it’s likely. I know this crowd is on the “Leagalize it” bandwagon but things are are so distorted. Please show me anyone who did time in IDOC for possession of weed. Seriously, show me. Almost all felonies in Illinois are served at 50%, except class X & M. A pistol case gets you, say 4 years. That’s really 2 years of “time.” Time served in the county jail counts toward that time. Offenders are given “good time” for various reasons. So that offender may do very little IDOC time, depending on how long they were held at the county fighting their case. A general rule is 1 yr felony usually equals 61 days of IDOC time - sometimes it’s only 1/2 day process at intake, then release to parole. As for the parole violations, please look at the Prisoner Review Board. Judges don’t “violate” parole, the PRB does. Street gang contact is a misdemeanor and is generally handled when the parolee pleads guilty and released with time considered served, usually a day or two. While technically a violation of parole, NO one is ever “violated” i.e. returned to IDOC for street gang contact. All of this makes me batty… Even the press is clueless about this stuff.

Comment by W.S. Wolcott Wednesday, May 4, 16 @ 4:09 pm
Time off for good behavior is fine in principle, but it’s ridiculous when it means prisoners don’t even serve half of their sentence.

We don’t have too many people in our prison system. It’s examples like this that suggest we have too few.

Comment by Downstate Illinois Wednesday, May 4, 16 @ 4:32 pm
do you really think these guys are afraid of prison? It’s like summer camp to them. Why do coppers get sick and tired of the never ending merry-go-round of arrest, lock-up, and release. This guy will be a statistic at some point in his stellar life and some even think he can be rehabilitated. Stayin fetal my friends.

Comment by proudstatetrooper Wednesday, May 4, 16 @ 4:49 pm
It’s pretty simple: if you commit a violent crime, you need to do extended time. Let’s get all the addicts out of our prisons and into rehab and legalize marijuana already.

Comment by Ratso Rizzo Wednesday, May 4, 16 @ 5:17 pm
The first thing I do when someone is murdered in the St Louis Metro area is check the victim and suspect via the Missouri Casenet court file or through the Circuit Clerk online records in St Clair or Madison County Illinois……both the victim and suspect likely have extensive criminal arrest records and should have been in prison.

The common reported “fact” that a minor amount of weed/with a long prison term is a fallacy. There are very few people who finally made it to IDOC

Comment by Retired ISP Wednesday, May 4, 16 @ 5:20 pm
The first thing I do when someone is murdered in the St Louis Metro area is check the victim and suspect via the Missouri Casenet court file or through the Circuit Clerk online records in St Clair or Madison County Illinois……both the victim and suspect likely have extensive criminal arrest records and should have been in prison.

The common reported “fact” that a minor amount of weed/with a long prison term is a fallacy. There are very few people who finally made it to IDOC who don’t belong there.

Comment by Retired ISP Wednesday, May 4, 16 @ 5:21 pm
The world might not be composed of good guys who decide who the bad guys are.

Comment by crazybleedingheart Wednesday, May 4, 16 @ 5:24 pm
crazybleedingheart, there are victims, people murdered, sexually assaulted, homes invaded, cars stolen. these are actual things that happen. done by bad people. the bad guys are the people who do those things that actually happen. they decide that they are bad by doing those things. good guys don’t make bad guys so.

Comment by Amalia Wednesday, May 4, 16 @ 5:29 pm
I guess we know how you view yourself.

I view you differently.

Comment by crazybleedingheart Wednesday, May 4, 16 @ 5:46 pm
@crazybleedingheart, tell that to people who are being victimized by shootings.

Comment by Amalia Wednesday, May 4, 16 @ 6:58 pm
Yhat makes no sense pct capt look at the facts

Comment by Regular democrat Wednesday, May 4, 16 @ 7:03 pm
Don’t let the tyrrany of the anecdote drive policy.
Labels on a rap sheet don’t tell the story. That’s TV law & order nonsense.

Comment by IRLJ Wednesday, May 4, 16 @ 7:35 pm
“Is his record that bad?” “Nope”

Are you high? Robbery, illegal possession of a gun by a felon, stolen car. How much worse does it have to get for the “let them out” crowd? As far as I’m concerned, this murder is on the lenient judges. Two days for violating probation? Seriously? Then why wouldn’t he continue to commit crimes.

Comment by Michael Westen Wednesday, May 4, 16 @ 8:31 pm
Guys decorated with records like this (and much worse) in my county are usually tried and true snitches. They learn to play the snitch game and get rewarded time and time again. DAs seem to have no ethical problems relying upon them to convict others.

Comment by Mike Thursday, May 5, 16 @ 11:39 pm