SPECIAL REPORT FOR JOHN BOCH
CHAMPAIGN COUNTY RIFLE ASSOCIATION
Greetings all.
It was a long weekend, but GunNews made it to the publisher earlier today... it is a pretty good issue that I'm sure everyone will find something to like inside.
After about four or so hours of sleep, I was joined by Dan Sadler, Bill Davis, Lance Gilbert (from Springfield) and we made the trip from Champaign to 26th and California in Chicago.
It was a rough neighborhood, with dirty and old buildings everywhere. Dirty city buses, cloudy air and dirty concrete everywhere. It was rough on the way in with people driving like idiots - road-raging and all that. On the way out we saw a store front with two bullet holes in the front - and they weren't from BB guns or pea shooters, either. The one in the door looked as though it was made by a 12 ga. shotgun slug creating a right-of-way at 1200 fps!
Of course, at the courthouse, nobody looked at all pleased to be there. Some of the more nicely dressed folks sported red "Juror" stickers on their clothes and if anyone could be described as somewhat less negative about their required presence, it would have been those jurors.
The distinctions between the two classes of people were fairly sharply drawn. There were few people that you or I might meet in the course of business or see at lunch here in Champaign - neatly and conservatively dressed. I was dressed like a lawyer with a button down shirt and khaki pants.
The other side of the coin were the criminal defendants and their "witnesses" and families. The families sometimes had one what could be described as Sunday best - at least they were dressed appropriately and respectfully for court. Most of the criminal types were dressed in "ghetto"-type clothing, regardless of ethnic background. I saw a couple in shackles and dressed in jail outfits.
Only in Chicago could a defendant, dressed like a thug in an athletic warm-up suit, talk to a judge in ebonics about a couple of witnesses he was wanting to have show up for a hearing by their street names.
Security was unlike any I've ever experienced before. Remove everything, down to your wallet, watch and belt. My steel-toed boots caused me to become some guy's date as they frisked me (and it wasn't with a metal detector wand, either.) But security was respectful, professional and almost nice. They guy asked me, "Why are YOU here?" as I obviously wasn't an attorney though my notebook would have suggested reporter if it hadn't said 'NRA' on the front, (the lawyers had little ID cards the exempted them from the security scrutiny). but rather an almost too-nicely dressed white face in a sea of all sorts of other ethnic groups. I told him that I was coming to watch a case in Judge Linn's court. He offered no cynical comment, just a "alright, you're good. Have a good one," as he handed me my tray to get "dressed" again. They had the metal detectors set so sensitive that I wondered if a zipper would set them off.
We get to the courtroom and inside, there is an area for spectators to sit... behind panels of 5/8th inch bullet resistant, tinted glass or lexan, that was angled at about 15 degrees inward towards to top, creating the impression that you were looking into a fishbowl with overly tinted windows. The ventilation sucked.
The proceedings were broadcast via a lousy speaker at low volume into the spectator area.
The courtroom decorum, as you will, was nothing like how things are done by us uncivilized, backwoods down-staters (the urban bigots think we are "hicks"). The first thing that was obvious was that nobody rose when the judge entered or left the room. Attorneys and courtroom staff just milled around, conducting their own little conversations with their backs to the judge, right in the middle of proceedings.
During one sentencing (for a double-aggravated, inferred-weapon armed robber, who got 2 years probation for two stick-ups), a delivery driver(!!) brought in a pizza and some sandwiches, walking through open court in session to the back door! We just looked at one another and shook our heads in disbelief. Then on his way out a couple of minutes later, chatted with the stenographer about how much she owed while she was supposed to be recording the court proceedings!!! We were aghast. Again, this was during a sentencing hearing.
The case before that, a man pled guilty to rape and received probation as well!
Finally, it was Pritchett's turn. The cops in his case were no-shows. So the bench trial began. Both sides stipulated, with some wrangling, about what the "facts" were and what the cop would say (from previous testimony at earlier hearings) and at that point, the state rested.
The judge asked, seeming to already know the answer, who all those people were out in the spectator area. He asked if we were a class or something...
About two dozen of us were there for support of Roderick and all of his (Caucasion, BTW) except the two attractive women (Carol and her daughter Corrin (sp?)) wore blue shirts. It was then that the judge cut the microphone and later, we were told, the judge told Maksym to make sure he has control of "his people" as the judge didn't "want any outbursts from any down-state Second-Amendment fanatics."
Maksym put on his case with Roderick called as the first witness.
By now, thankfully, much of the circus going on earlier had subsided and only a few people were occasionally walking through open court. The judge did stop, right in the middle of testimony from the witness stand, to take a phone call (this was the second time since I arrived he did this). "Whoa. This is not a recess. I'll be back in thirty seconds. Just sit tight." True enough, he was. Yeah, it wasn't like any court I'd ever been in as an observer or juror.
Maksym seemed to irritate the judge by putting on part of his case (that frankly, didn't seem all that relevant, but in Chicago, maybe it was relevant, I don't know.) The questioning dragged on, despite the judge repeatedly (and inappropriately in some cases, IMHO) saying, "Come on, let's go" in an effort to rush the bench trial. Oh, and the prosecution objected to about 50% of Maksym's questions. In fact, Maksym asked Pritchett if he had a FOID card and they objected to that!!! (And it was
sustained!)
Finally, Maksym asked Roderick if the gun was unloaded. Yes. He asked Roderick to describe how it was transported. He did. Was their a bullet in the chamber? No. How do you know? Well, at the range (in so many words), it's important to make sure the gun - a semi-auto - was cleared before packing up to prevent an accidental discharge at some later time. How do you do that? Roderick explained how he did this.
Maksym asked how and why he transported the gun in a CD case instead of a gun case. (To avoid advertising that he had a gun in his back seat.)
At this point, I went down to put money in the meter and on the way back, I ran into Bill and Dan. They said that there was a "security emergency" in the courtroom we were in and the judge ordered everyone in the spectator area to be removed from the building. They had left ahead of everyone else before the security folks arrived. Huh??
So what happened?
Maksym had apparently attempted to enter into evidence the State Police brochure on "How to transport your gun legally" (Objection!! sustained) and a copy of the IL law (Objection, sustained) and a few other items that demonstrated that Roderick knew the real law and was trying (was in fact) to comply with the law in transporting his gun.
The judge apparently stopped testimony mid-stream around this point and declared the defendant not guilty after berating him for a couple of minutes, to the effect of "young man, be careful who you chose for your friends. I'd hate to see a fellow get a felony conviction by listening to bad, but well-meaning, advice from so-called friends."
Running that through the universal B.S. translator: "Boy, a black kid like you had better leave the guns to the cops. Don't listen to these 2nd Amendment fanatics that you can have a gun to protect your family. You, as a black man - or any man for that matter living in the big city, have no real "right" to a gun and next time you might not get acquitted even though you're possessing a gun as these gun nuts tell you to -- legally."
The crowd applauded briefly after the judge pronounced the not-guilty verdict.
At that point, the judge came unglued. He almost came over the desk in outrage at the applause and ordered the bailiff to have everyone removed from the building before he held them all in contempt of court. Of course, everyone being law-abiding folks, they all left pretty much before security got there. A few in the back of the room were still there and escorted out without problems.
The bailiff came in as Roderick's supporters were already leaving the observation room in an orderly fashion and called out on the radio for an "emergency escort" from that courtroom.
And that's where I found Bill and Dan.
I can't believe I missed the finale because I was slugging the meter!
Attached is a small picture (bigger one for John Birch for the website (and our webmaster as well) of many of the supporters in front of the courthouse with Roderick and his family.
We created quite a spectacle outside the big courthouse as thirty people talked about the trial. Eric Zorn from the Trib, I believe, was there as was someone from the Sun-Times. Look for this to be in the paper tomorrow.
I guarantee the Mayor will be pissed. Dick Devine, the SA, will be pissed.
And the judge will take plenty of heat for his verdict. I guarantee it.
I got home around 5:30ish, intending to take a half-hour nap and go to work... Paul Vallandigham woke me up at 9:45 when he called. Oops.
Ciao!
John Boch
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