'We're All In Danger': NL Mayor Blasts CC State's Attorney On Crime

NEW LENOX, IL — On the heels of an arrest made in a June 20 carjacking, New Lenox Mayor Tim Baldermann on Monday unleashed frustration with Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx, whose approach to crime, he says, continues to lead to it spilling over into neighboring counties.

New Lenox Police Chief Louis Alessandrini Monday announced the arrests of a 19-year-old man and 17-year-old boy in connection with the June 20 armed robbery and carjacking of a 71-year-old Uber driver. The men—both of Chicago—face a slew of charges in the encounter. Timothy Gaines, 19, is being held on $1 million bond.

The arrests followed days of New Lenox police working in coordination with Illinois State Police and Chicago Police, chasing down leads on a stolen Hyundai used as a getaway car in the early-morning crime.

Four people found with the stolen car—with the victim's stolen money clip found inside—weren't connected to the New Lenox crime, police discovered, but it brought them closer to who was. The pursuit led New Lenox police to surveil a gas station at 111th and Racine, where two of the suspects—captured on surveillance images nearby—frequented and arrived that day.

Police on June 23 took two of the three suspects into custody, with combined charges including aggravated vehicular hijacking, armed robbery, attempted aggravated vehicular hijacking, aggravated battery, and unlawful use of a weapon.

Baldermann lauded the efforts of New Lenox police, before decrying Foxx and the office she holds.

"Our officers being at the scene, and being able to apprehend two of these three offenders was not luck," Baldermann said. "It’s incredible police work—tracking these leads down, staying up long hours and getting on it, and they did just that.

"There were four of our police officers there … when these offenders were taken into custody," he said. "That’s four police officers that were not in the village limits of New Lenox protecting our residents, because they had to be out in Chicago once again, looking for criminals that have come from Cook County."

Baldermann went on to say that in the previous three years, New Lenox has seen one homicide, three vehicular hijackings and one attempted vehicular hijacking.

Each one "involved career criminals from Cook County," he said.

Baldermann pointed to a board showing 16 mugshots, all tied to recent crime in New Lenox, he said.

"These career criminals not only reside in Cook County, but committed numerous crimes in Cook County," he said. "Sixteen individuals listed on this board, they have 149 prior arrests, 76 prior convictions. Seventy-six convictions for 16 offenders."

Pointing to a lack of thorough prosecution by the state's attorney's office, Baldermann said the offenders returned to communities and continued committing crime.

"Many of the crimes they were arrested for, require minimum sentences of 3 years or greater," Baldermann said. "If you even took the 76 convictions, and tacked three years onto those, and averaged it out amongst these 16 offenders, that would mean each one of them should have been doing at least 14 years behind bars.

"If the state’s attorney’s office wasn’t constantly downgrading charges, and accepting pleas to make cases probation-able … if they instead pushed the issue, and held these criminals accountable, we’d have a young man still alive in this community, we would have innocent victims of carjackings, both had two young children under the age of 5 in their cars as guns were brandished in their face."

Baldermann referenced the 2020 shooting death of 19-year-old Charlie Baird, who was shot after a confrontation with a Harvey teen outside a New Lenox gas station. The Harvey teen was driving a car that had been stolen days earlier in Lockport. He attempted to enter Baird's car while he was inside the station, according to reports, and Baird was shot shortly after encountering the other teen. He died two days later in a hospital, but was able to describe the shooter, police said. The shooter was charged as an adult, and in November 2022, a Will County judge denied bond reduction for the shooter, now 18 years old.

He also referenced a March 2022 carjacking where six people, including two gunmen, got out of a stolen BWM and approached a New Lenox woman as she was taking two children out of her car. The woman was forced at gunpoint to hand over the keys to her SUV, according to police. As the woman was being carjacked, another vehicle with two more children inside pulled into the driveway, police said.

The men tried to take that vehicle, as well, but the driver was able to escape, police said. No one was hurt during the carjacking and attempted carjacking. Police later arrested and charged a Elijah Castle, 22, of Chicago Heights; Devante Davis, 27, of Chicago; and Narquis Thomas, 21, of Chicago with more than a dozen felonies each, including aggravated vehicular hijacking, armed robbery and aggravated unlawful possession of a stolen motor vehicle.

"If the state's attorney's office would have done their job—and I lay it right at the top—these crimes would not have taken place in our community," Baldermann said. "And it’s not just happening in New Lenox, it’s happening all over the collar counties. Certainly it’s happening in Cook County on a regular basis, but all over the collar counties."

Baldermann said that some responsible for crimes in New Lenox were arrested previously, but not prosecuted thoroughly or incarcerated for as long as sentenced.

Gaines, the 19-year-old arrestee in the June 20 carjacking incident, was arrested less than a year ago for criminal trespass to a vehicle and possession of ammunition without a FOID card, Baldermann said. That case was later dismissed, he added.

"If that weren’t the case, perhaps we wouldn’t have had this vehicular hijacking, and a 71-year-old man wouldn’t have been beat over the head with a weapon," Baldermann said.

Baldermann also pointed to what he sees as shortcomings in Gov. JB Pritzker's leadership, saying Pritzker has not offered long-term solutions or plans to combatting violent crime. Pritzker recently said the City of Chicago needs to hire 1,500 more police officers—a target that might be hard to hit, Baldermann noted, because of perceived attacks on law enforcement officers in recent years.

"... why are these officers retiring with 20 years on the job, 22 years on the job?" Baldermann conjectured. "Normally an officer wants to work 30 years, to max out, but they don’t.

"Because they can’t roll the dice anymore that when they’re out there trying to do their job, and protecting people, they become the criminal, and the criminal becomes the victim."

Baldermann thanked the community for its role in assisting police following the June 20 carjacking, and for its overall support of the police force. He spoke of how safe of a community New Lenox is, and his commitment to fighting crime.

"My responsibility is to stand up for the 30,000 people that I represent, and I can tell you once again, that we do, have a very safe community," Baldermann said. "This is three years’ worth of serious crime that we’re talking about. And although it doesn’t happen very often, and although it almost exclusively happens by career criminals out of Cook County, that doesn’t help the mother who lost her son, that doesn’t help the mother who had a gun stuck in her face with two small children in the car. That doesn’t help the man who’s just trying to earn a living at 71 years of age when he gets pistol-whipped over the head by two thugs.

"All of us have a responsibility to stand up and demand action. We must. I don’t care how many phone calls have to be made to the Governor’s office, how many phone calls have to be made to your state legislators, how many phone calls have to be made to the state's attorney's office.

"This cannot just be something we talk about in the moment and dismiss. Because the way things are going, any one of us could be the next victim. Any one of us—it doesn’t matter where you live, what the color of your skin is, or who you vote for. Until we take crime seriously, and we punish those that are continually committing these crimes, we’re all in danger."

Baldermann voiced his discontent about spreading New Lenox resources thin to pursue criminals from and in other areas.

"... I’m getting really tired as the mayor, of having our officers having to leave our borders, going to the same locations over and over again to arrest criminals that should have been in jail in the first place," he said.

"I’m hoping that we can stop having press conferences like this one of these days. … If they did their job in Cook County, it’s entirely avoidable."