Editor's note: This article has been revised from a previous version to more accurately state the response of the Cook County Sheriff's Office to the lawsuit. The article was further revised to include the response of the Cook County Chief Judge's office to the lawsuit.
Another lawsuit has been filed against Cook County’s sheriff and the county’s chief judge seeking to hold them liable for a murder committed by people who were already charged with a violent crime, and allegedly on electronic monitoring, yet were still allegedly allowed to roam free to commit more crimes.
On July 13, the family of Vietnam veteran Keith Cooper, who was killed in a carjacking in 2021 on Chicago’s South Side, filed suit against Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart and Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans.
The lawsuit specifically asserts the two men charged in Cooper’s death, Frank Harris and Dushawn Williams, were improperly allowed to leave their homes, even though the lawsuit alleges both men had previously been charged with carjacking and possession of a stolen vehicle, and were supposedly on electronic monitoring while awaiting trial.
In response, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office issued a statement saying they “strongly dispute” the lawsuit’s assertions. The sheriff’s office said it has no record of either of the men ever being placed in an electronic monitoring program administered by the sheriff.
The lawsuit centers on the death of Cooper, a 73-year-old man, who died after he was struck in the head during a carjacking in Chicago’s Mt. Greenwood neighborhood on July 14, 2021.
The lawsuit was filed by Cooper’s daughter, Keinika Carlton. According to a report published by CBS News Chicago in July 2021, Cooper had been out driving his black Hyundai automobile, running errands on the day he was assaulted and killed.
According to published reports, the attackers did not succeed in taking his car, and immediately attempted to flee on foot. They were captured by police a few blocks away from the place of the attack, thanks to witnesses who identified them to police.
Prosecutors later charged Harris and Williams with the attack. Harris was 18 at the time, and Williams was 17.
However, Cooper’s relatives now believe Cook County should also pay for the murder of their patriarch.
In the complaint, Cooper’s family asserts Harris and Williams should have been under closer supervision from the county, given their alleged prior charges and alleged placement in the county’s electronic monitoring program.
They asserted the county officials in charge of the county’s criminal detention system, the sheriff and chief judge’s office, allowed Harris and Williams to be placed into the electronic monitoring program, even though they knew the program lacked the staff and resources to actually keep tabs on the men’s movements, and to intervene should they attempt to travel without permission.
The lawsuit against the sheriff and chief judge over Cooper’s death is essentially similar to an earlier lawsuit against those officials over another murder.
In that case, the family of Shanate Guy said the county should be held to account for Guy’s murder at the hands of her boyfriend, Dominiko Johnson, who was also allegedly under electronic monitoring by the county as he awaited trial on charges of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.
According to both lawsuits, at the time of the murders of both Cooper and Guy, more than 3,500 people were outfitted with electronic ankle bracelets, purportedly to monitor their movements, as they awaited trial on other charges. That number included more than 500 people who had been accused of unlawful use of a weapon, and who, before the monitoring program had been created, would have been in jail.
According to the complaint, the sheriff’s office “received an average of 850 alerts per day” from the electronic monitoring program, indicating those under the program were likely traveling without permission.
However, the complaint notes only 110 people were assigned to monitor those people, and to potentially respond to the hundreds of alerts each day.
Further, the complaint noted Sheriff Dart has publicly stated the program “was never designed for violent criminals.” Dart also said his office “needed a lot more personnel” to adequately monitor those in the program.
In both cases, the plaintiffs are asking the county to pay unspecified damages.
Both plaintiffs in both cases are represented by attorney Robert J. Bingle, of Wise Morrissey.
A spokesperson for Chief Judge Timothy Evans declined comment, saying: "Under the Illinois Supreme Court judicial ethics rules, judges cannot comment on pending or impending cases."