CHICAGO — The decision by Cook County’s new top prosecutor to enforce state shoplifting laws as they are written is troubling news for a veteran of CWBChicago’s reporting, Leonard Johnson. Recently departed Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx refused to charge people with felony shoplifting unless they stole merchandise worth more than $1,000 or had at least ten prior convictions.
But Eileen O’Neill Burke reversed that policy on her first day in office last December. She ordered her team to follow state law, making the felony threshold $300. She also instructed prosecutors to enforce a state law allowing for felony charges to be filed in cases involving less than $300 if the accused has a previous theft conviction.
Last Wednesday, Chicago police received a “suspicious person” call about two men loading stolen merchandise into a Chevy Malibu in the 2600 block of North Elston, a CPD report said. Officers found the Malibu unattended and searched the area and detained Johnson, 26, and another man who were carrying merchandise nearby.
In a report, an officer said Johnson admitted “he did take merchandise without paying but is willing to give it back.” Johnson also told the cops that he had more merchandise in his car, according to the report.
Johnson, police said, admitted “he steals often and he steals to sell as well as keep for himself.”
The police recovered material allegedly stolen from three stores on the block: $343 from Burlington; $348 from Ross Dress For Less; and $254 from Five Below.
Under Foxx, those would be misdemeanor charges. But not under Burke. Her office charged Johnson with two counts of felony retail theft over $300 and felony retail theft of under $300 with a previous conviction, according to court records. The man police arrested with Johnson faces two felony counts and, because he does not have a prior theft conviction, one misdemeanor charge.
Johnson has been featured in CWB twice before, first for a robbery he committed on the Red Line in River North and later for a carjacking in Lincoln Park.
In 2018, Johnson was identified in a CTA video as the “primary aggressor” in a group that surrounded a man on the Grand Red Line platform, demanded his wallet, and then tried to withdraw money from his accounts at the station’s ATM. He eventually received a 3-year prison sentence.
Two years and one day after the CTA robbery, Johnson and two accomplices carjacked a 27-year-old man in the 900 block of West Armitage. Prosecutors said the men pulled the victim from his car, drove away with it, and then used his credit card at a gas station near Aurora. CPD detectives recognized Johnson (this may sound familiar) from the store’s video footage.
Johnson pleaded guilty to vehicular hijacking in March 2022 in exchange for a 6-year sentence.
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