The violent firebug who allegedly set a woman ablaze on a Chicago train earlier this week was released by a judge in a separate assault case in August — despite prosecutors petitioning for the serial criminal to be jailed.
Lawrence Reed, 50 — who left a woman fighting for her life in Monday’s horrific caught-on-camera train incident — had been sprung in the earlier case Aug. 22 with electronic monitoring even though prosecutors warned a judge it wasn’t enough to protect the community from him, according to a report by CWB Chicago.
But Cook County Judge Teresa Molina-Gonzalez was forced to free Reed because he was only charged with a misdemeanor for allegedly slapping a social worker so hard that she was knocked during an Aug. 19 assault inside the psychiatric ward of the MacNeal Hospital, court records show.
Under Illinois’ Pretrial Fairness Act, judges can’t hold a defendant in jail unless they are charged with a felony and meet a slew of other criteria, including having a criminal history, posing a risk of endangering the community or being a flight risk.
Prosecutor Jerrilyn Gumila had still warned the judge at the time that electronic monitoring would be “wholly insufficient.” And he was allegedly proven right.
“It could not protect the victim or the community from another vicious, random, and spontaneous attacks,” Gumila told the judge of freeing Reed, according to a transcript of the Aug. 22 hearing in a Maywood court, the outlet said.
Gumila described how Reed could be seen on surveillance video flying off the handle as the social worker was speaking with him inside the locked ward.
He “became irate and slapped the victim in the face with an open palm,” Gumila said. “Her vision went black, and she lost consciousness for several seconds. One of the victim’s co-workers rushed over and helped the victim walk down to her office, and the victim was then taken to the emergency room.”
The social worker’s injuries included a cut on the cornea of her eye, possible optic nerve bruising, a concussion that caused her nausea and memory loss and a chipped tooth, Gumila said.
At the time, the prosecutor also ran through Reed’s extensive criminal history — which another judge called “ridiculous” and which included a 2020 arson conviction for setting a fire outside a Chicago building.
“The defendant poses a real and present threat to the safety of, especially this victim, whoever else was working in the hospital that day, and the community as a whole,” Gumila told the judge of the August incident.
“The defendant randomly and spontaneously became irate in this situation where the victim was just attempting to do her job as a social worker, and now as a result, suffered injuries so severe that she still has side effects on a daily basis.”
Reed’s lawyer, Nicholas Yannias, chalked his client’s behavior up to his 26-year-long struggle with a mental illness that makes him “paranoid.”
Yannias, who works with the public defenders, said Reed had been treated at the same hospital for 17 years and that he’d gotten back on the correct dose of his medications since the assault.
“Mr. Reed needs services, he does not need to be incarcerated for being mentally ill and acting in accordance with his mental illness,” the lawyer said.
The judge eventually told Gumila, “I understand your position, but I can’t keep everybody in jail because the state’s attorney wants me to, but I understand and respect your position.”
The judge ordered Reed to stay away from the hospital unless he has “a medical emergency” and told him he would be monitored electronically “because of your ridiculous criminal history and lengthy criminal history.”
The judge allowed him to leave his home 40 hours a week — 24 hours more than the 16 allotted under the state’s SAFE-T Act permitting defendants with electronic monitoring to leave home 16 hours a week for “essential” activities.
A few weeks later, on Sept. 12, Judge Ralph Meczyk approved Yannias’ request allowing Reed out for different hours so that he would “be able to do church activities,” the outlet reported, citing a transcript of the hearing.
The charge against Reed for the assault on the social worker was upgraded to felony aggravated battery less than a month later, on Sept. 17. He pleaded not guilty.
Court papers filed Wednesday in the state case against Reed for the train attack show that Reed had violated his curfew a handful of times in November, including on the day of his attack.
He stayed out past his curfew Nov. 9, Nov. 12, Nov. 13, Nov. 14, Nov. 15 and on Monday, court records show, indicating on some of those days, there was an “escalated alert.”
On Friday, Reed was ordered to remain behind bars pending trial for the train horror. He was charged with federal terrorism rap, among other things.
He agreed to stay behind bars.
In repping himself, he told the judge he doesn’t “feel safe in society.
“I’m a target from society. I don’t feel safe out there. I think for my safety, it’s best for me to be detained,” Reed said.
Federal prosecutors in court papers argued Reed should be held without bail, citing his lengthy rap sheet, including 72 busts and 15 convictions.
Reed was convicted of starting a fire in April 2020 when he walked up to the government’s Thompson Center building in Chicago and poured two red cans of liquid near the window and lit a fire. He didn’t serve any time and was only sentenced to probation in that case, the feds claimed.
A spokesman with the Office of the Chief Judge at the Cook County Circuit Court said judges can’t comment on pending cases.
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