A Cook County judge remarked that a man with a history of randomly and violently attacking strangers “seems to be expending a lot of energy getting into violent incidents allegedly” and that it “seems like we have a little anger management issue” before deciding to release the man on electronic monitoring rather than keep him in jail. Three days later, prosecutors say, that same man went on a violent spree in the Loop, punching three women in the face while he was supposed to be home on an ankle monitor.
The man, Marlon Miller, is now detained on felony aggravated battery charges after Judge Peter Gonzalez acknowledged that the electronic monitoring program overseen by the office of the county’s chief judge was “completely unreliable as [Miller] was out and about committing crimes.”
On March 8 of this year, Miller received a three-day sentence for misdemeanor battery after hitting a woman in the face in the 7000 block of West Cermak Road. On May 20, he received a 10-day sentence for misdemeanor battery after punching a woman in the head in Evanston. Also in May, he received a 75-day sentence for punching a woman multiple times in the 300 block of North Michigan Avenue.
By fall, Miller began accumulating new pending cases while under the chief judge’s electronic monitoring program. On October 10, Chicago police arrested him in the 100 block of East Lake Street on misdemeanor reckless conduct charges. A witness told officers he personally saw Miller punch two women in the face at the corner of Dearborn Street and Randolph Street, then run away and push another woman to the ground. The witness followed Miller until officers arrived. Judge Luciano Panici Jr. released him the next day…