Police say release of reputed Black P Stones leader for $10,000 in murder attempt makes their jobs much harder
By David Heinzmann and Jeff Coen, Chicago Tribune
In the eyes of police and prosecutors, Kenyatta White was the consummate example of a defendant who deserved to be held in jail on a high bail, or even no bail at all.
White, the reputed second-ranking leader of the Black P Stones gang, was charged with murder early in 2003. He was released on bail, but months later he was back in court on new charges that he fired 15 shots into the brother of his alleged murder victim in an ongoing drug feud.
Yet after hearing this chain of events, Cook County Circuit Judge Leo Holt on Feb. 6 set bail for White at $100,000. Although he had been held without bail since his Dec. 29 arrest, he now had to post just $10,000, or 10 percent of the total bail, to be freed. And Holt had previously denied prosecutors’ requests to examine whether the convicted narcotics dealer used drug proceeds when he has posted bail.
Holt, who like all judges setting bail must weigh the rights of a defendant, who is presumed innocent, against the safety of the community, said he is “comfortable” with his decision.
But Chicago police are furious.
“It’s very frustrating, and it makes not only our jobs harder but the county’s (prosecutors) too,” Police Supt. Philip Cline said.
The case is an example of difficulties police say they sometimes face at a time when the drug trade and gang warfare have given Chicago the highest number of murders in the nation.
In a city where suspects and victims are often connected to the same underworld, police say it is difficult enough to hold investigations together. And in this case, they feel undercut by the judge’s decision to slash bail.
Gang violence
Police officials said they are very concerned about the fact that White is back on the street amid violent gang activity on the South Side, both between factions of his Black P Stones gang and with the rival Gangster Disciples.
Police call White the second-highest ranking Black P Stone in Chicago, a label his lawyer denies. He is charged with the Jan. 7, 2003, murder of Aramein Brown, 26, who was gunned down late at night at an Amoco station in the South Shore neighborhood. White was arrested and charged with the murder six weeks later.
In mid-April, he posted the required 10 percent of his $500,000 bail, or $50,000, and was released from Cook County Jail after Holt refused prosecutors’ request for a “source of funds” hearing to determine whether he was using illegal drug proceeds to get out of jail. Top prosecutors said judges have discretion when it comes to forcing defendants to prove a legal source of bail funds, and often use it in major drug cases.
On Dec. 14, Brown’s brother, Ajani, was shot 15 times while sitting in his car with a friend. Police said White led the hit, which included other gang members driving up to Ajani Brown’s car and boxing him in so he could not drive off during the shooting.
Ajani Brown survived and told police White shot him. Police sought attempted murder charges against White, believing the shooting to be part of an ongoing drug dispute with the Brown family.
Police sought White for two weeks before U.S. marshals arrested him in East St. Louis on Dec. 29.
When White was returned to Cook County Jail, he was initially ordered held without bail by another judge. Prosecutors argued that the shooting was a violation of his bail on the murder case.
As the case headed toward another hearing before Holt, it was complicated by key witnesses beginning to waffle.
Sundiata Brown approached White’s lawyer, Michael Johnson, and said his brother Ajani was willing to recant his accusation, Johnson said. According to Johnson, Sundiata Brown, who is facing a murder charge for killing White’s nephew in 2002, came to him in January after his client was jailed.
Prosecutors point out that the rivalries have the potential to influence testimony in the case. Just as the main witness against White was a member of Sundiata Brown’s family, the main witness against Brown was an alleged associate of White.
Police sources and other sources with knowledge of the case said the Brown brothers were seeking a truce.
Johnson contends he had no knowledge of a deal between White and the Browns being the source of the recantation. Instead, Johnson said, the Brown brothers had simply decided to tell the truth.
The feud was the reason Ajani Brown accused White in the first place, Johnson said. “If Ajani caught a cold, he’s going to say he got the cold from Kenyatta White,” Johnson said.
But Ajani Brown’s story allegedly changed again.
Changing stories
Assistant State’s Atty. Raymond Brogan said Brown subsequently told prosecutors he signed the statement recanting his accusation only because he was afraid of White, and that he still believed White shot him.
“That’s why he gave that recantation and another reason why you know that recantation can’t be true,” Brogan told the judge, according to a transcript of the hearing. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents were also present for Brown’s latest statement.
Holt also heard statements from witnesses who said White was at a birthday party at the time of the shooting. But the witnesses--both clowns hired for the party--gave conflicting accounts about when the party started and when White was there.
According to the transcript, Holt said he was siding with White’s version of events.
“It would be difficult for anyone in my judgment to say that the proof is evident or the presumption (of guilt) is great,” Holt said.
The judge said there is another burden that also must be met to hold someone without bail.
"(It) must be shown that the defendant poses a real and present threat to the physical safety of any person in the community by conduct which may include, but is not limited to a forceable felony,” the judge said.
He noted that White was on bail for the first murder at the time of the Ajani Brown shooting, but added that the first offense “is still untried and the credibility of those accusations are not clear either.”
The judge’s decision worries police. Whenever gang leaders are in jail, or coming out of jail, it agitates the ongoing struggles for leadership in the gangs, police say.
Last year, 20 of the 598 murders in Chicago were known to be retaliation killings, Chief of Detectives James Molloy said.
Retaliatory violence has been one of the driving forces of police redeployment efforts in the last year. Crime statistics analyzed by the department’s computer system show where hot spots are developing from day to day, and commanders place added patrols in areas where they believe shootings will beget more shootings.
“We know it’s out there. The [statistics] show us it’s out there,” Molloy said.
For instance, police were on high alert in January when another reputed Black P Stone leader was heading toward trial on a federal weapons charge. The leader controlled drug dealing in the area near 55th Street and Loomis Boulevard in the Englewood District, police said, and the area was a hot spot for shootings as his gang tried to maintain control a battle with rival Gangster Disciples.
“Because of [the gang leader’s] control of that area, with the pending trial, it could cause the area to be more unstable,” Cmdr. Steve Caluris said at the time.
Other controversy
This is not the first time Holt has drawn the ire of law enforcement for a controversial bail decision.
In 2002, Holt reduced the bail of a defendant accused of running onto the field and attacking a coach during a White Sox game. Holt allowed William Ligue Jr. to go free as he awaited trial by lowering the amount from $200,000 to a level that Ligue’s family could pay.
A person can wait for trial at home if they have the means, the judge said at the time.
“And if you cannot pay for it, we will lock you up in our jail and destroy you prior to trial,” Holt said, saying a defendant has a limited ability to participate in his defense and support his family while incarcerated.
Ligue’s rush onto the field with his son was captured on videotape, but Holt was not impressed. “Those of us who are old enough may very well remember another event captured on videotape in the 1990s out in California, involving a man named Rodney King,” the judge said.
In White’s hearing, Holt also took time to make a stand against the norms of the bail system after prosecutors tried to use White’s criminal record as a reason for keeping him behind bars. Holt cited a 70-year-old Illinois Supreme Court case involving Bernard Snow, a man with a history of rape, murder, escape and robbery charges who was not held without bail on a new case.
“The criminal record of this defendant pales in comparison to the record of Bernard Snow,” Holt said of White.
White’s lawyer Johnson called Holt’s decision “appropriate,” but Brown’s attorney, Frank Himel, said he has serious concerns about White being on the street.
The Browns and many others with ties to White’s gang are afraid of him, Himel said, “and I think with good reason.”