Chicago City Wire

The first among hundreds accused of looting early Monday on Magnificent Mile appeared in bond court and was released for $500, even after Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Police Superintendent David Brown demanded accountability, according to media reports.

Former Judge Pat O’Brien, who is running for Cook County State’s Attorney on the Republican ticket, blames incumbent Kim Foxx.

“She has more of a commitment to the people who violate the law than she does to the victims of crime,” said O’Brien, who was a Cook County Circuit Court judge for eight years.

Kim Foxx | File photo

CWB Chicago reported that 25-five-year-old Demisck Lomax, who appeared before Judge Mary Marubio, was charged with felony aggravated battery of a police officer, criminal damage to property and resisting police.

“This is a person who, when they were trying to use a brick to break a window to steal and loot, took a second chunk of concrete and hurled it at a police officer, hitting him in the hand,” O’Brien told the Chicago City Wire. “We’re not just talking about some looting, which is serious enough, you're talking about someone who committed violence or battery against a police officer. It's ridiculous to let a person like that back out while the looting is still going on. He should have had no bond to be reviewed in two or three days when the situation quieted down.”

Although Lomax was among the individuals who allegedly responded to a social media post calling for looting on Michigan Avenue, Rush Street, Oak Street and Loop shopping districts early Monday, he was released on Tuesday after family reportedly bailed him out.

“In a looting or civil unrest situation, the threat to the community exists when you let looters and rioters back into the existing situation where there is looting and rioting because it sends a message to those people still doing it, that there will be no consequences," O'Brien said. "So, he could have been held, I think, on a no-bond or at a minimum that bond should have been $10,000 cash.”

Among the stores impacted were Salvatore Ferragamo, Orvis, Best Buy and Niketown, media reports said. O’Brien alleges that Foxx has not been in the office since mid-March and that her assistants have been left to cope with COVID-19 without their boss.

“I've been in bond court and, quite frankly, her assistants are like statues,” said O’Brien, according to media reports. “For two and a half months, while her assistants are trying to uphold the law and having contact with people that might have the coronavirus, Kim Foxx is nestled in her foxhole as if she somehow is a bystander. This is ridiculous.” 

O’Brien added that voters and taxpayers alike should be outraged that Lomax received a slap on the wrist.

“The state's attorney is the voice for both the victim and for larger citizens who are law-abiding and, for a state's attorney to side with criminals, that means there is no one talking for victims and no one talking about the safety of the community,” he said. “That's the job of the state's attorney. This is a situation where the people have to throw her out of office. If she is elected for a second term, we will be in an even worse situation.”