Cases Gone Cold

Posted on 02. Sep, 2009 by admin in Community Focus

by Shanita Bigelow

As reports of Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis’ pride in the 9% decrease in overall crime and 11% decrease in homicides so far this year make headlines, there’s the fight to solve cases that have gone cold.  Weis has faced much criticism this year, from his public endorsement of Obama to his vote of noconfidence from the Fraternal Order of the Police.

“He made some mistakes when he got in. He’s tried to rectify some of those mistakes…and now, he has to try to recover,” Police Committee Chairman Isaac Carothers told the Sun Times as Weis made his third City Council appearance of the year in mid- March.

But as Weis takes the heat in Chicago, the Illinois State Police (ISP) face the flames of criticism and accountability. A March, Illinois Auditor General report revealed that the ISP crime labs had more than a 200% increase in backlogged cases from fiscal year 2002 to 2007 (3,426 to 10, 387 cases). The ISP crime lab, the third largest system of crime labsin the world, consists of nine labs throughout Illinois. The report exposed the “inaccurate and misleading information” recorded by the ISP labs, as well as the understaffing and frequent delays in delivering case results.

“Nearly half…responded that problems with timeliness negatively impacted a case in the past five years…delays in receiving results hindered the prosecution of cases including not filing cases, dismissing cases, cases being delayed and losing cases. Delays have also affected law enforcement’s ability to arrest suspects or keep suspects in custody, and have caused individuals to remain suspects longer than necessary,” according to the report.

To add insult to injury, an estimated 50,000 felons were released from state prisons and county probation without submitting DNA samples as required by law, leaving potentially violent criminals out on the streets, the Chicago Tribune reports. The “All Felons DNA Law” enacted in 2002 was a necessary move for “[i]t is imperative that our state’s DNA database be as complete and accurate as possible to ensure that we are locating and convicting those who committed crimes and exonerating those who are not guilty,” Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said in a February 2008 press release.

It’s a year and a half later and despite the controversy and the delays, there have been some successes. Illinois has collected samples from over 300,000 criminals, according to the Chicago Tribune. Physical evidence from the Brown’s Chicken murders, processed by the Chicago crime lab, used to convict Juan Luna in the grisly murders will also be used as evidence against James Degorski, currently on trial for the now 16 year old case, according to the Chicago Tribune. In July, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez announced the arrest of Chicagoan Rudy Thompson in the six year old murder of Francisco Villanueva, a food and beverage vendor killed after an attempted robbery.

As these reports continue to surface, they provide some hope for those who have yet to see justice. There are 37 cases on CPD’s cold case Web site. The oldest is the 1970 murder of Wendell Allen, who came with his wife and child to visit family. The perpetrator( s) threw a Molotov cocktail, a crude bomb, into the room where he and his family were sleeping. He died from his injuries.

The two year old case of Victoria Dysart, a 22 year old shooting victim, is the most recent case. The 1983 murders of 76 year old John Frantz and eight year old Tamoi Taylor are reminders of the breadth of suffering, the multitude of families all over Chicago who have yet to find closure.