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| Deangelo Lee | Cook County Sheriff |
A man who posted $500 bond to get out of jail after allegedly assaulting police with knives during a SWAT team standoff last week was jailed during a follow-up appearance Monday after charging the bench, escaping, and battling with sheriff’s deputies who dragged him back before a new judge, according to court records and officials.
Police were called to the 2400 block of West Lunt in the West Ridge neighborhood around 5:30 a.m. on June 18th after a woman reported that a man with an outstanding warrant was in her apartment. Deangelo Lee, 31, barricaded himself inside the apartment and officers summoned the Chicago Police Department’s SWAT team to handle the situation, according to police records.
Lee threw glass bottles at officers and then approached three SWAT team members with two knives drawn, saying, “I will kill you” and warning that the officers would not make it home safely that night, prosecutors said.
Police took Lee into custody and prosecutors charged him with three misdemeanor counts of aggravated battery.
At his bail hearing, the court’s pre-trial services division said Lee is a convicted violent felon with two failures to appear at previous court proceedings. The division recommended that if the judge decided to grant bail to Lee, “maximum conditions” should apply.
Instead, Judge David Navarro set bail at $5,000 and Lee went free by posting a 10% deposit bond of $500.
Lee had a hearing Monday afternoon in Judge Daniel Gallagher’s courtroom at 5555 West Grand. But the officers he allegedly threatened were not there, which usually results in charges being dropped. Prosecutors, though, asked Gallagher for a continuance and the judge noticed that less than a week had passed since Lee was arrested. The officers may not have known about the court date because of the short turnaround time, the judge surmised.
Lee, seated in the gallery, allegedly yelled out that the charges against him were “bogus,” which apparently motivated Gallagher to grant the state’s continuance.
Upon hearing that, Lee began yelling and charged to the front of the courtroom until he was directly in front of Gallagher, according to court records. The judge immediately raised Lee’s bail to $10,000, and remanded him to custody, according to a sheriff’s department statement. But the show wasn’t over.
Lee then tried to get up onto the bench where Gallagher was sitting. Sheriff’s deputies attempted to place Lee into custody, but he broke away, hopped on top of the wall that separates spectators from the well of the court, then leaped across the tops of spectator benches and ran out of the courthouse, records say.
A sheriff’s department spokesperson said Lee was “apprehended quickly.”
Hauled back before Gallagher, Lee reportedly continued to struggle with deputies while screaming at the judge. Gallagher ordered deputies to remove Lee from the court in the interest of public safety and then raised his bail in the SWAT incident to $50,000.
The judge also sentenced Lee to 540 days in jail for contempt of court. He may review that sentence at Lee’s next court date on July 2nd.
Yesterday, Lee was charged with one count of escape for running from the courthouse, a sheriff’s department spokesperson said. He was denied bail on that count.
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