 |
| Russell J. Powell outside the Broadway Youth Center in 2012. Powell is currently serving 11 years for attempted murder. Inset top: Powell at the Center on Halsted Cyber Center. Inset bottom: Powell’s Illinois Dept of Corrections mugshot. |
Yesterday evening’s robbery of a man by three fellow Night Ministry outreach clients conjured up some old thoughts. We remember so many times when genuine, good people expressed legitimate concerns about how some service agencies operate in our neighborhood, only to be smacked down as racist, ageist, or some other “ist.”
That’s the textbook response of poor agency operators who would rather divert attention from their management by labeling those who dare ask questions.
To be sure, the Broadway Youth Center (BYC) has become a much-improved operation over the past year. But as we go about our work at CWB, we repeatedly run across arrestees and inmates whose address of record is 3179 N. Broadway—the BYC’s former location where concerned citizens, derided as racists, were once told no criminal element existed.
Meet some recently-discovered former residents of 3179 N. Broadway:
• Russell Powell is seen above chillin’ outside the BYC entrance in 2012. By the end of that year, Powell was charged with attempted murder/intent to kill, two counts of armed robbery, three counts of home invasion, four counts of burglary, and three counts of aggravated battery in connection with a single incident. He pleaded guilty to attempted murder last December and is serving 11 years.
 |
| Hill (Cook Co. Sheriff’s Office) |
• Hussun Hill, also known as Hussun Fox, Axel Zero Crusade, and Axel S. Crusade, is charged with one count of criminal trespass after allegedly entering the Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School at 1:20AM on October 16.
The school’s burglar alarm was tripped and a remote observer saw a man with handcuffs on his belt inside the school. Responding officers stopped Hill shortly thereafter, biking in the 3800 block of Broadway, allegedly with handcuffs and an “extended baton” on his right hip. They took him to the school where security identified him remotely via surveillance cameras.
Hill, 22, has had more than 10 criminal cases brought against him in recent years—many in Boystown—with most being thrown out by Cook County Judge Marvin Luckman.
 |
| The address on a recent bail slip for Hill, a/k/a Crusade. |
A few cases were dropped when complainants such as the Center on Halsted and Sports Authority failed to show up in court.
His convictions and sentences: Six months probation for battery in the 3300 block of Clark Street in 2009; six months probation for assault at the Center on Halsted in 2010; two days (time served) for reckless conduct outside of Boystown’s Scarlet bar in 2011; two days (time served) for trespassing in the 19th district police station garage last year; and eight days (time served) for criminal damage to property at an unknown location.
• We previously told you about Steven J. Haymon. Paroled after doing time for robbery, aggravated battery, and hate crime in connection with a 2010 incident on the Boystown strip, Haymon pleaded guilty to criminal trespass to a vehicle this summer after being found behind the wheel of a car he did not own at Roscoe and Halsted. He was sentenced to 60 days. Now, Haymon is in trouble again, charged with battery after allegedly pushing a doorman who refused to let him enter Roscoe’s Tavern on October 5.
