“Electronic Monitoring Appreciation Week” continues at CWB Chicago. Our team has been flooded with so many new stories about people being arrested while on EM lately, we decided to make a week of it. You can see all of our EM Appreciation Week coverage at this link. Here’s the latest:
Jorge Tenorio has several layers of problems. Until a couple of days ago, he was on electronic monitoring for a serious gun case that he picked up when federal and local law enforcement raided his home in August 2020 — while he was on electronic monitoring for another gun case and on probation for two other felonies.
He’s not on electronic monitoring anymore. On Wednesday, prosecutors charged him with forgery for allegedly creating a fake employment verification letter so he could get permission to move around town while on house arrest.
Assistant State’s Attorney Loukas Kalliantasis said Tenorio received permission to work at an Aurora company in January, and he submitted the allegedly fake letter on February 22. When sheriff’s office investigators contacted the supervisor who purportedly signed the letter, he told them that he never signed it and said Tenorio hadn’t worked at the company for weeks.
Private defense attorney, Otis Dominique, said the situation is a “misunderstanding.”
“The whole reason why we’re here is because he provided fraudulent documentation while trying to get movement on electronic monitoring,” Judge Barbara Dawkins summarized after hearing the state’s allegations. “Which is essentially thumbing the nose at the court and the sheriff’s department.”
Tenorio has been on electronic monitoring for two separate gun cases, including one that stemmed from a raid on his home while on EM for the first case.
In August 2020, Tenorio was on EM, lying in bed with his girlfriend, when Chicago police and agents from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, Department of Homeland Security, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives stormed in with a search warrant shortly after 6 a.m.
They were looking for a specific handgun, but they found much more, Assistant State’s Attorney James Konstantopoulos said during a bail hearing the next day.
There was a loaded handgun under the mattress Tenorio, and his girlfriend were lying on, Konstantopoulos said. A bulletproof vest allegedly hung in his bedroom closet next to a case containing a shotgun with ammunition. Another handgun with ammunition was also there, Konstantopoulos alleged.
There was a pistol in the living room, and the specific gun authorities were looking for was in a nightstand, Konstantopoulos said, adding that there was ammunition “throughout the home” for each of the guns.
Tenorio was on electronic monitoring at the time for a pending charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was also on probation for two other felonies, Konstantopoulos said.
“He had double probation,” Judge John Lyke observed with amazement after Konstantopoulos’ presentation. “Boy, was he given great opportunities.”
The judge who gave Tenorio all of those chances, Steven Watkins, gave him even more chances. He reduced Lyke’s $250,000 bail order to $65,000, which allowed Tenorio to go home on EM again by posting a $6,500 deposit.
Dawkins was not as forgiving Wednesday. She held Tenorio without bail in the two gun cases Watkins is overseeing. She set bail in the forgery case at $50,000.