Colin
The chair of the Illinois Prisoner Review Board and a board member have resigned over backlash for granting the release of a man who fatally stabbed his ex-girlfriend’s young son less than 24 hours after he was freed.
Board chair Donald Shelter and board member LeAnn Miller stepped down on Monday in the wake of 11-year-old Jayden Perkins’ murder on March 13, according to CBS 2.
Perkins was allegedly stabbed in the chest by the recently released man on March 13.
Crosetti Brand, 37, allegedly ambushed Jayden and his mother, Laterria Smith, in the doorway of their Edgewater residence less than 24 hours after he was granted parole from the Stateville Correctional Center, the local Chicago station reported.
Smith, 33, was stabbed in the neck but survived the attack.
Miller reportedly approved Brand for parole the day before.
The heinous incident elicited widespread outrage, in part because Smith had begged for an order of protection against Brand just last month.
At the time of the filing, Brand was doing 16 years behind bars for home invasion and aggravated assault.
A Cook County judge scheduled a hearing about the order for March 13, according to CBS 2.
Both parties were expected to attend, with Brand being notified about the hearing in prison.
Miller, however, wrote a report that approved Brand for parole on the 12th — and Smith and her son were attacked just hours before the hearing was supposed to take place.
Both the Illinois Department of Corrections and the Illinois Prisoner Review Board subsequently claimed they did not know about the protection order hearing, CBS 2 reported.
But emails obtained by the outlet indicated that the Department of Corrections knew about the hearing as early as Feb. 22.
“The Department sincerely apologies for any confusion its previous statement may have caused,” the agency told CBS 2.
Shortly after the station reported on the emails, Gov. JB Pritzker announced Shelton and Miller’s resignations.
“The Prisoner Review Board must be able to operate independently as they review enormously difficult cases, but I believe LeAnn Miller has made the correct decision in stepping down from her role,” the governor’s statement read.
“It is clear that evidence in this case was not given the careful consideration that victims of domestic violence deserve, and I am committed to ensuring additional safeguards and training are in place to prevent tragedies like this from happening again,” Pritzker said.
Brand was first paroled last October before being briefly reasserted in February after he “threatened” a female via text, police said after the attack.
He is now facing a murder charge in addition to a slew of other violations — including the violation of a protection order — in connection with Jayden’s death.
“Due to the fact that orders of protection are often filed in civil court, many agencies do not have access to the case management system, so the service of these petitions to the respondents and the notification, when an individual is in custody, is crucial to protect victims,” the Cook County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office told CBS 2 in the wake of the failure around Brand’s parole.
The office admitted that similar communications gaffes could impact others who are seeking protective orders against soon-to-be-released inmates.
“These issues must be rectified immediately,” the court clerk’s office insisted.
“A system that is PAID for by the public to PROTECT the public should be transparent. The Clerk’s office is not allowed to release data without approval, and it is clear that there are major issues with the entire court system,” Circuit Court Clerk Iris Martinez told CBS 2.
“When we do not provide basic data points to the public, we also hinder community providers and domestic violence advocates that are seeking grants and donations for resources to address Gender Based Violence,” she noted.
