A convicted gun offender who had been held without bond was released from jail this month after a Cook County judge lowered his bail. Eight days later, the man was arrested and charged with possessing yet another handgun, according to court records.
Judge Mary Marubio ordered Raheem Hinton to be held without bail on Aug. 22 after prosecutors said he ran from cops while carrying a handgun on the 8000 block of South Marshfield.
But on Sept. 3, Judge Peter Gonzalez slashed Hinton’s bail to $50,000, which allowed the 20-year-old to go free by posting a $5,000 deposit bond.
Eight days later, around noon on Sept. 11, officers monitoring a police surveillance camera on the (this may sound familiar) 8000 block of South Marshfield allegedly saw a juvenile wrap a gun in a T-shirt and hand it to Hinton. The officers said they saw Hinton place the gun in his waistband.
Hinton gave the gun back to the juvenile who then ran into a nearby home as police arrived, prosecutors said. The teenager was arrested as he crawled out of the home’s bathroom window. A gun was found in the bathroom, police said.
Arresting officers said Hinton told them that he could not be charged with possessing a handgun because he gave it to someone else before they caught him with it. Later that night, Hinton allegedly made a scene in the police lock-up and insisted that he could not be charged with possessing the gun because he gave it to someone 10 minutes before police arrived, a CPD sergeant said.
Contrary to Hinton’s understanding of the law, prosecutors that evening charged him with being a felon in possession of a weapon for more than the second time. Judge Laura Sullivan ordered him held without bail.
Hinton is also still facing one count of being a felon in possession of a weapon and felony resisting arrest for the Aug. 27 case.
He previously received a one year sentence for possessing a firearm in 2017.
This is not the first time that Judge Gonzalez found a gun possession case to be less concerning than his colleagues.
Last November, 57-year-old Levi Flemister was charged with unlawful use of a weapon in a park after Soldier Field security guards allegedly caught him trying to carry a handgun into a Bears football game.
Flemister told police that he lives in a group building, that the coat was not his, and he didn’t know the gun was in the jacket. But prosecutors pointed out that Flemister had previous convictions for armed robbery and carjacking and could be charged with being a habitual armed criminal.
Judge John Lyke expressed reservations about Flemister’s claim that he didn’t know there was a gun in his pocket (stadium security said he handed the gun over after it set off a magnetometer). The judge was even more concerned about Flemister’s old convictions. He ordered Flemister held without bail.
Ten days later, though, Flemister had a much friendlier reception in Gonzalez’s courtroom.
Gonzalez reportedly cracked some Bears jokes with Flemister and then agreed to release him on a recognizance bond while telling him to remain employed.
Prosecutors followed through on their plan to charge Flemister with being an armed habitual criminal and a series of other felonies. He remains free on Gonzalez’s recognizance bond.