Chicago — A Chicago man with two pending felony cases was bailed out of jail by a charity bond fund, only to travel to Indiana and cut off his ankle monitor, prosecutors say. Cops say he was carrying another gun when they finally caught up with him.
Frederick Smith, 21, also has pending cases for allegedly battering guards and engaging in lewd behavior at the Cook County jail.
“When you’re in custody, you’re fighting with guards and masturbating,” Judge Charles Beach said during Smith’s bail hearing last week. “And when you’re out of custody, you’re cutting off your EM bracelet and fleeing the state. And not only that, you’re in possession of a weapon while you’re doing so.”
Smith’s ankle monitor signaled the Cook County sheriff’s office about two problems on January 30. First, Smith had been away from his house for two hours longer than permitted. And, second, he was in Indiana.
Investigators began tracking the monitor’s GPS and eventually found Smith back in Illinois at a home in southwest suburban Alsip, prosecutors said. They saw him walk out of a house with several other people, but he turned around and ran back into the building when he saw the authorities, Assistant State’s Attorney Rihanna Biernat alleged.
Workers from the sheriff’s office chased after Smith, who allegedly dropped a pile of clothes and a 40-caliber handgun in the hallway as he ran.
Chicago police and the sheriff’s office eventually found Smith leaving the house after he changed into pajamas. His electronic monitoring band had been cut.
Smith made a series of calls from the Cook County jail that authorities recorded.
In one, he asked his mother to have his girlfriend tell police that she cut the band off because they had been in an argument, and she wanted him to leave the house so they could avoid having a domestic altercation, Biernat alleged.
In another call, he allegedly told someone that he switched his clothes because “I thought I could go ahead and sneak past them.”
Biernat said a charitable bail fund posted a $10,000 payment so Smith could get out of jail on electronic monitoring in October. He has two pending felony cases, one for armed violence and the other for aggravated battery of a corrections officer, Biernat said.
Smith also picked up “multiple” public indecency counts in jail, according to Biernat.
He was convicted of unlawful use of a weapon in 2020 and adjudicated delinquent as a juvenile for a gun charge.
Beach ordered him to pay a $25,000 bail deposit to be released on the new charges with a 24-hour curfew. But Smith won’t be able to post that right away. He’s also being held without bail for violating bond in the pending armed violence case.
Even though Smith is accused of violating his bail conditions, the charitable bond fund is not at risk of losing any money it put up for him. A standing order by Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans bars the circuit clerk from collecting “any fees, court costs or penalties from bail bond funds posted by a Charitable Bond Fund without the surety’s voluntary, written consent.”
