Will County state’s attorney talks SAFE-T Act, cop’s fatal shooting in podcast interview

During Will County States Attorney James Glasgow’s discussion in a recent podcast interview on the SAFE-T Act, he briefly spoke about his office’s struggle with whether a sheriff’s lieutenant’s fatal shooting was negligent or reckless.

The issue of Sheriff’s Lt. John Allen’s fatal shooting of Gregory Walker, 65, of Crest Hill, came up toward the end of Glasgow’s appearance on a Fox 32 Chicago podcast show called “Wearing the Badge with Garry McCarthy.”

In January, a special grand jury decided not to approve charges against Allen over the incident.

But Will County reached an $2.75 million settlement with Walker’s family to dismiss a federal wrongful death lawsuit, and Allen was fired after an internal investigation.

Allen is appealing his termination, according to the Will County Sheriff’s Office.

Glasgow’s interview with McCarthy was published on Fox 32 Chicago’s website Aug. 8.

McCarthy is a former superintendent of the Chicago Police Department who was fired in 2015 by former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel after public outcry over former Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke’s murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.

When McCarthy was asked in an interview with “60 Minutes” if he was made to be a scapegoat, he said, “If you want to call it scapegoat, that’s fine,” according to the Chicago Tribune.

The main discussion between Glasgow and McCarthy was the SAFE-T Act. The law eliminated cash bail for defendants on Sept. 18, 2023, but allowed judges to keep defendants in jail depending on the charges and whether they posed a flight risk or a danger to others.

Fatal shooting

At the tail end of Glasgow’s interview, he brought up the investigation of Allen’s fatal shooting of Walker. Glasgow called the Allen case “one of the most difficult things that me and my other attorneys had to do.”

“Two and a half years [of] struggling with whether or not this was a negligent act or reckless act. Because if it’s negligent, it’s not criminal. If it’s reckless in Illinois, it is criminal,” Glasgow said to McCarthy.

Glasgow said his staff was “going back and forth, back and forth.”

“We got to the point where we weren’t 100 percent sure, and we wanted to make sure we literally let the grand jury decide and, you know, the officer did not intentionally shoot that person, and yet he was there risking his life as he always does, and so it meant a lot to us to make sure we got that right,” Glasgow said.

Because the grand jury proceedings in Allen’s case are secret, none of the testimony and exhibits will ever be made public.

But several details were outlined in a Jan. 27 motion filed by Glasgow’s office to “disclose certain matters” regarding the grand jury investigation.

The grand jury heard testimony from 27 witnesses who testified, including police officers, civilians, firearm experts, the FBI and a physiology professor, according to the motion.

More than 100 exhibits also were presented to the grand jury, according to the motion.

One of the witnesses who voluntarily testified was Allen himself, said Jeff Tomczak, Allen’s attorney. Tomczak said Allen was “one of more remorseful clients I ever represented in my years.”

In the wake of the grand jury’s decision, Walker’s family released a statement saying that they felt a “profound sense of injustice.”

“We believe in accountability and the fundamental principle that every life has value. The loss of Gregory is a reminder of the urgent need for meaningful change in how communities are policed, how decisions to hold responsible parties accountable are made, and how justice is sought,” according to Walker’s family’s statement.

Cashless bail

McCarthy and Glasgow have been critical of the SAFE-T Act and the legislative actions behind it.

Glasgow said in his interview: “It’s not that we can’t exist without bail, because we’re doing it.

“My jail’s only down 20% occupancy. So, we’re still pursuing all the cases that we need to pursue. We’re winning all of our trials on the violent cases. We’ve been able to adapt, and I’ll throw in here there was a trailer bill that helped us do that.”

Glasgow was among numerous prosecutors throughout the state who unsuccessfully sued in 2022 to stop the implementation of cashless bail.

In 2023, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that the state constitution does not require the setting of a monetary bail. The court also ruled that the SAFE-T Act requires judges to consider the safety of victims at “every stage” when determining the pretrial release conditions of defendants.

Glasgow told McCarthy that there are a “number of offenses” that should make defendants eligible for detention, such as possession of less than 5 grams of fentanyl, threatening a juror and threatening a public official.

“Not that every person would be detained in every single circumstance, but give the judge the opportunity to hear the totality of the evidence and decide whether it’s a safety issue,” Glasgow said.

Glasgow said just “two little grains” of fentanyl is lethal.

“The dangerousness of that dealer is astronomical, or even that possessor,” Glasgow said.