There has been a lot of discussion about the use of electronic monitoring before trial and changes Illinois politicians made to state laws regulating the use of “EM.” Under the new laws enacted by the state last year, EM participants cannot be charged with escape unless they are away from their homes without authorization for at least 48 hours. Another newly-enacted law allows EM participants to leave their homes two days a week to go grocery shopping and complete other tasks.
Here are some people who have recently been arrested while on electronic monitoring in Chicago:
Xavier Davison, 28, is on EM for attempted murder in connection with a shooting on the west side in December 2018, according to prosecutors and CPD records. Last Wednesday,
Chicago police allegedly saw him run a stop sign, park the car, and walk away. When cops looked into the Alfa Romeo he had been driving, they saw a loaded handgun lying on the driver’s side floorboard, Assistant State’s Attorney Zachary Peasall said.
The owner of the car told police that she let Davison borrow one of her guns, but she recanted her statement when the cops asked her if she knew Davison was a convicted felon, Peasall said.
Davison’s felony convictions include two narcotics cases in 2011, burglary in 2012, and DUI in 2015, according to Peasall. A judge initially ordered Davison held without bail in his pending attempted murder case, but Judge Timothy Joyce reduced that to $300,000 with EM in March 2019, and Davison posted bail the next month, Peasall said.
Judge Susana Ortiz ordered Davison held without bail for violating the terms of release in the attempted murder case until Joyce reviews the new allegations. She set bail in the new gun case, charged as unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, at $200,000 and ordered him to go onto EM again if he is released.
Escaped once
Lamont Ott, 27, was charged with burglarizing a River North convenience store in July 2020. According to court records, he went home on electronic monitoring, stopped showing up for court two months later, and got re-arrested in November 2020.
Prosecutors charged him with escape. And he went home on electronic monitoring again in January 2021. Both cases are still pending.
Early Friday morning, January 14, Chicago police were conducting surveillance on the 1000 block of North Riverwalk on the Near North Side. Prosecutors said that a resident who recently reported several package thefts agreed to let cops put dummy packages on their porch to trap the thief.
Guess who allegedly walked up and stole the dummy packages?
When cops confronted Ott at the residence’s front gate, he allegedly threw the packages into the air and tried to run away. They caught him, and prosecutors charged him with felony theft and misdemeanor trespassing.
His criminal record includes adult felony convictions for possessing a stolen motor vehicle, theft, and burglary. Prosecutors said he was adjudicated delinquent as a juvenile for residential burglary and robbery.
Judge Maryam Ahmad ordered him held without bail for violating bond in his pending burglary and escape cases. She set bail in the new theft case at $2,000. She also ordered him to go on EM again when he gets out.
A long grocery trip
Last September, Julius Kirkpatrick was charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and aggravated battery of police officers following an incident in the Loop. A judge ordered him to go on EM upon posting $5,000 of a $50,000 bail order.
He went home on October 12. Four days later, the sheriff’s department received a “strap tamper” alert, meaning from Kilpatrick’s ankle monitor, a signal that someone may be trying to remove it, prosecutors said.
Investigators went to the place Kilpatrick was supposed to be staying. His host said he went to get groceries and never returned. The sheriff’s investigators activated an alarm on Kirkpatrick’s ankle monitor and found it lying next to some train tracks near the home where he was supposed to be.
“He wasn’t wearing it,” Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy noted wryly. “He never came back from the grocery store.”
Murphy said that Kirkpatrick remained on the loose until January 8 when security guards at Nordstrom, 55 East Grand, arrested him for shoplifting a $375 purse.
Prosecutors charged him with retail theft for the Nordstrom incident and criminal damage to government property for cutting off his ankle monitor. He is also charged with escape.
He was given a recognizance bond for the retail theft case. Bail for the escape is set at $100,000, which will require a 10% deposit.
