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A story about systemic failure is back in the news again

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Illinois

* This started out as a story about a fiend who shouldn’t have had a gun to begin with…

By the time Christopher Miller showed up at his estranged wife’s backdoor in September 2019 with a pistol in his waistband, state authorities already had declared him too dangerous to own firearms.

He had lost his gun license 20 months earlier after being charged with aggravated battery for brutally beating a man in a Naperville parking lot. He disregarded orders to relinquish any weapons, and no one made sure he complied.

Miller startled his wife that autumn afternoon as she moved around the kitchen making a snack for her daughter. With cocaine and alcohol in his system, he stared at Cassandra Tanner Miller with hazel eyes so dilated they appeared black.

“Are you all ready to die today?” he asked as he suddenly burst into the Joliet house.

He then choked his estranged wife and shot and killed their 18-month-old boy before killing himself.

* It was about a systemic failure…

Cassandra did everything she was supposed to do to protect herself and her children from Christopher after they separated. She said law enforcement, the Illinois National Guard, and the judicial system all let her down.

Christopher shouldn’t have had a gun. His FOID card was revoked in January 2018 for an aggravated battery charge in DuPage County.

Illinois State Police sent out a letter notifying Christopher he was required to surrender his gun, but he never did.

Cassandra also sounded the alarm to the Illinois National Guard, reporting his violent behavior and drug use.

“That he was hearing things, that he wasn’t being responsive the way that he should, and I was just pretty much told to mind my own business and they kind of just stopped answering my phone calls,” she said.

And…

Tanner-Miller says that authorities failed in their duty to protect her and her family, and she says it was because they were biased because of her husband’s military service.

* The horrific case prompted calls for reform…

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart is calling for changes in how the judicial system handles defendants with revoked gun licenses following a Tribune investigation into the ballooning backlog of people declared too dangerous to own firearms and the state’s failure to address it. […]

The move comes after the Tribune highlighted the story of Christopher Miller, a Joliet man who fatally shot his 18-month-old son, Colton, with a gun he should have relinquished after having his firearm owner’s identification card revoked more than a year earlier. According to a Tribune analysis, Miller was among the more than 70% of revoked FOID permit holders statewide who ignored police orders to account for their weapons.

During his 20 months on the revocation list, Miller appeared before judges in two separate counties on criminal charges and never once was asked if he complied. No one at the hearings — one in DuPage County and one in Cook County — ordered the Illinois National Guardsman to give up the multiple firearms he kept in violation of state law.

His wife even warned DuPage officials about the weapons and his FOID revocation by the Illinois State Police, but no one acted on the information. DuPage prosecutors told her to seek an order of protection if she was afraid. […]

Under Dart’s proposal, the FOID revocation status of all defendants would be checked and shared with a judge before bond is set.

* Tanner-Miller has been working with Rep. David Welter to change state law…

Representative Welter is also working on a new law called, “Colton’s Law” which will push for GPS monitoring for violent offenders like Chris. GPS monitoring is used in many states, and will alert victims of domestic violence if their abuser is nearby. Had that system been used in Cassandra’s case, the outcome could’ve been drastically different.

* And her case was used as a reason for the eventual phase-out of cash bail…

Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart, a Democrat, suggested the bill would end the notion that cash bail correlates with the risk posed by the offender.

“These commonsense reforms will prevent tragedies like the case of Cassandra Tanner-Miller, in which her abuser posted $5,000 and then killed their 18-month-old child,” he said in a statement.

* But Ms. Tanner-Miller participated in a House Republican press conference yesterday with Rep. Welter to highlight opposition to the criminal justice reform bill. From a press release…

Cassandra Tanner-Miller lost her young son because her abusive ex-husband, Christopher Miller, was released without a cash bond. Ms. Tanner-Miller barely survived the assault and has been an advocate for survivors and reforming Illinois law ever since. She expressed deep concerns that the provisions in HB 3653 that loosen regulations on the standard for threat and willful flight for detention will make it more difficult to hold violent offenders.

“HB 3653 will be a complete dismantling of victims’ safety and rights,” said Ms. Tanner-Miller. “Illinois legislators need to work together with all entities, to build upon our criminal justice system, to ensure criminals who knowingly are breaking laws have accountability for their choices. Eliminating cash bail will be detrimental to victims and more Christopher Miller’s will be walking out of the courthouse free, putting victims and their families in direct danger. I know this personally because my son’s murderer had been released on a ‘no cash bail’ just weeks before our tragedy took place. We cannot go backward in our criminal justice system. We need to work proactively towards a safer Illinois.”

He was released from Cook County on an I-Bond after being busted for cocaine.

* Advocates for domestic violence victims, however, spoke up in favor of the legislation. The Network: Advocating Against Domestic Violence represents over 40 organizations that “provide direct services to domestic violence survivors, including court advocacy.” The groups also administer the Illinois Domestic Violence Hotline…

The Network: Advocating Against Domestic Violence applauds the concern for the safety of domestic and sexual violence survivors from the law enforcement community. We would reiterate that the use of citation does not apply to domestic or sexual violence cases. As we work to ensure the criminal justice system is fair and safe for all, we encourage our law enforcement partners to read carefully the safeguards for survivors in the PFA. During the 24-to-48-hour period of detention, law enforcement should notify survivors of the bond hearing and, if desired by the survivor, communicate with them about safety concerns. This is an important step in ensuring survivor-led justice. Connections can also be made to local domestic and sexual violence service providers and to the Illinois Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-877-863-6338.

* Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation…

[The Pretrial Fairness Act] ensures victims have more opportunities to be heard during the pretrial release process, providing input that goes beyond assessing whether a person who causes harm is rich or poor. It is long past time that the criminal justice system learns how to accurately, fairly, and in a non-racist or classist manner, attend to the real threats that people charged with a crime do or do not pose–especially to victims of gender-based violence.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 12:54 pm

Comments

The cops know where these people live. It’s on their FOID card application. Show up at their house and say “give up the gun or you’re going to jail today for unauthorized possession.”

This shouldn’t be hard. Sheriffs aren’t processing many evictions these days.

Comment by yeah Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 1:08 pm
, law enforcement should notify survivors of the bond hearing

If they can’t/don’t chase down revoked FOID, will they have time to do this??

appeared before judges in two separate counties on criminal charges and never once was asked if he complied.

I would bet that no one at those hearings KNEW he had a revoked FOID, and so didn’t know to ask.

Comment by Fav Human Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 1:14 pm
1) If Welter isn’t going to support law enforcement actually seizing the guns, what does a GPS tracker matter?

2) cash bond didn’t matter for multiple killer Kyle Rittenhouse, who tried to skip bond and repeatedly lied to the court about it. What’s the amount of money that would have kept Christopher Miller in jail?

The U.S. Constitution bans excessive bail and bail is supposed to be based on risk to the community, not profiteering for courts and press conferences for David Welter.

Comment by Precinct Captain Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 1:14 pm
Way to go, Sheriff Tom Dart. Good idea you’re pushing. Thanks.

Comment by west wing Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 1:23 pm
This is so heartbreaking. And all the moreso because there were so many red flags and missed opportunities.

Comment by Responsa Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 1:23 pm
Always fun to see a victim of a crime be used as a prop for the folks that seek to undermine the law and program that would have legitimately prevented her from being the victim of a crime, especially when the facts don’t exactly line up with the portrayal.

Comment by Candy Dogood Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 1:26 pm
Combining the words “fun” and “prop” into a comment relating to a poor woman whose son was murdered takes the cake.

Comment by Responsa Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 1:30 pm
Candy Dogood yes.
Although all the news reports are confusing. Was he released on $5000 bail or an I bond, or are those two separate instances? If he could make bail and went on to kill his son then how is keeping bail going to prevent other murders. This makes no sense.

Comment by Da Big Bad Wolf Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 1:33 pm
===Combining the words “fun” ===
The word “fun” was used sarcastically.

Comment by Da Big Bad Wolf Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 1:35 pm
I’m very sorry for the family of the victim, but using wealth to get out of jail rather than the risk to others is a bad idea.

People who are likely to commit another crime should not be released from jail before their trial. Even if they are rich.

People who are not likely to commit another crime should be released from jail before their trial. Even if they are poor.

We probably still don’t recognize the risk of domestic violence enough in our systems when assessing risk.

Comment by Dan Johnson Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 1:36 pm
We’ve seen military service taken into consideration and result in lenient bail recently, I’m not sure it’s relevant either and wonder what the experts would tell us about what the data says?

Comment by Thomas Paine Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 1:38 pm
Also wonder if there was an underlying, untreated mental illness here in addition to his addictions?

Was counseling or drug treatment required as a condition of release? These are the types of things that the recent reforms are meant to address.

Comment by Thomas Paine Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 1:43 pm
I’m reading this as the violation of the revocation would just increase bail (or risk assessment) if you are charged with a new crime. This doesn’t criminalize non-compliance in the first place. Further, the article doesn’t say he was convicted of said crime when he was put on the revocation list just that he was charged. If he’s not guilty is the revocation removed? How would putting him on GPS prevent this? In Chicago, ankle monitors don’t have GPS currently and if they did do we have enough staff to alert officers in a timely manner? I’m not saying don’t try but this seems more complicated then a judge simply looking at a list which is how it’s being presented.

Comment by 1st Ward Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 1:52 pm
=Was he released on $5000 bail or an I bond, or are those two separate instances? =

Two separate instances. He was charged with Aggravated Battery in DuPage County, and posted $5,000. Some time later, he was charged in Cook County with Unlawful Possession of a Controlled Substance, and was released on a recognizance bond. The murder-suicide occurred about a month later.

Comment by JoanP Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 1:53 pm
I should add that while I don’t know whether access to mental health services would have made a difference in this particular case, we do know that affordable, universal access to mental health services would prevent a lot of deaths from child and spousal murders to suicides to gang shootings.

Congressional Republicans have consistently fought expanded mental health coverage Obama Care, and statehouse Republicans have consistently supported budgets that would further hamstring Illinois’ already underfunded mental health services.

If Welter is looking for someone to blame, he doesn’t have to look very far. Just look around the room in the next caucus meeting.

Comment by Thomas Paine Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 2:08 pm
I have talked about this multiple times and have spoken up in committee about this. You don’t need a law. what you need is for every ASA in the Court to make an inquiry if they have or have had a FOID? and get in in front of the judge.

From there the defendant can answer on the record and face a perjury rap or come clean. and then the judge can decide how to deal with it they may not get bail if they don’t have a sufficient answer and the judge can work out with the attorney the relocation of the firearms.

It simple takes either the chief judge to put it down or the SA to make it policy for the ASA’s in the court room to check.

Comment by Todd Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 2:28 pm
What Candy Dogood said.
I was so sorry to see this victim leveraged, misleadingly, for political ends.

Comment by walker Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 2:38 pm
“ Combining the words “fun” and “prop” into a comment relating to a poor woman whose son was murdered takes the cake.”
I don’t understand this comment. What Tanner-Miller went through was horrible, but how does her experience prevent her from being a prop?

Comment by Tamarind Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 2:58 pm
Weapons-related charges are a main trigger of cash bond. Do we get rid of cash bond and lock up more people, in lieu of other incentives to stay out of trouble pending trial? Or does somebody have a better way to keep people with prior weapons offenses from carrying weapons, or being in close proximity to weapons?

Comment by Ares Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 3:03 pm
No laws work when the people in law enforcement are deaf. The system failed because people did not listen and act. Maybe we need a group like Mothers Against Domestic Abusers. Attitudes need to change.

Comment by Last Bull Moose Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 3:16 pm