It’s hard to believe a year has passed since Democrats wrapped up their 2024 national convention in Chicago. The event drew thousands to the city and, as you may recall, Chicago police arrested dozens of people, mostly during protests.
So, what happened to those criminal cases? We decided to find out.
CWBChicago identified 81 arrests tied to the DNC that resulted in charges. As we reported last year, 20% of those cases were dismissed within a month. Today, only five cases remain unresolved. Here’s how the others ended up:
- 43 cases were dismissed by prosecutors or not pursued by city attorneys.
- 8 defendants were found not guilty.
- 25 resolved with guilty pleas.
Of the five felony cases that have been resolved, every defendant pleaded guilty to reduced misdemeanor charges. That includes people accused of battering police officers and possessing a firearm.
When the Sun-Times published an update on convention arrests in May, it leaned heavily on information from the National Lawyers Guild, which suggested prosecutors should drop the remaining cases because so few defendants had been found guilty at that point.
But logic suggests the cases still pending in May were likely the ones prosecutors considered strongest, thus they were the least likely to warrant dismissal. Indeed, court records show four of the five cases resolved since the Sun-Times report ended with guilty pleas. The sentences were:
- 10 days in jail for battering a peace officer.
- A year of probation for battering a police sergeant and stealing his radio.
- 18 months probation and 30 hours of community service for battering an officer.
- 30 days of court supervision for trespassing.
According to court records, that 30-day supervision sentence went to 70-year-old retired doctor Charles Steinbruegge, who was portrayed by WBEZ and USA Today last year as a bicyclist who simply passed through the convention site at the wrong time.
The five cases that are still active involve allegations of felony firearm possession, theft of another officer’s radio, disorderly conduct, and two defendants charged with resisting and trespassing.
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