Chicago police detectives have questioned a 24-year-old prison inmate in the shooting death a year ago of off-duty Officer Michael Bailey outside his South Side house. But charges aren’t being filed yet because Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez is out of town on vacation, sources told the Chicago Sun-Times.
“Point blank, they told us she left town (Friday) morning and won’t be around for the press conference,” a source said.
The prisoner was questioned Thursday night and admitted to police and prosecutors that he intended to rob the officer July 18 when Bailey pulled his gun, they exchanged gunfire and he shot and killed the off-duty cop, according to sources.
They said detectives who have been working the case for the past year also have statements from eight other people to support their case and think they have a “chargeable case.”
Police were told Thursday night that the filing of any charges against the inmate would have to wait because Alvarez was leaving for a conference and vacation in Hawaii.
“He won’t be charged for two weeks — until she gets back,” one source said. “They want additional interviews done with witnesses whom we and they have talked to already. They want ’em brought down to the grand jury. Normally, they bring witnesses to the grand jury after they charge and before they indict. But they’re buying time until she can get back from vacation.”
Dan Kirk, Alvarez’s chief of staff, said that’s not the case.
“There are things that still need to be done,” Kirk said. “There are significant things that need to be completed in terms of the overall case assessment. Once those items are completed, we’ll be in a position to make a charging decision on the case. We’ll charge the case when the case is ready to be charged. It’s got nothing to do with whether the state’s attorney is physically in Cook County or not.”
In a release issued Friday, police said the investigation is “on-going.”
“The Chicago Police Department continues to work with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, and progress has been made in the investigation. Detectives continue to conduct interviews; however charges are not anticipated in the immediate future.
Kirk also objected to the characterization of Alvarez’s trip as a vacation. Alvarez is in Kona, Hawaii, attending the Conference of Western Attorneys General, where she is scheduled to make a presentation Tuesday morning on the “Role of Attorneys General in Combating Human Trafficking.”
The group includes the attorney general from each of 15 Western states and three Pacific territories. Kirk said Alvarez plans to return in “a few days.”
Bailey, 62, was less than a month away from retirement when he was killed outside his home in the Park Manor neighborhood about 6 a.m.
Police believe his killer tried to rob him as he was washing his Buick Regal, which he had bought as a retirement present three weeks earlier. The father of three had just completed an overnight shift guarding then-Mayor Richard Daley’s South Loop townhouse.
Sources said the break in the Bailey case came late last year from a Cook County Jail inmate, who said the suspect told other inmates that he “was involved in the killing of a policeman. He didn’t say Bailey. He used the location — 74th and Evans.”
Bailey’s family, distraught at his death, moved out of the Park Manor neighborhood.
UPDATE: Anita Alvarez is still stuffing her fat ass with tacos and burritos while out of state fighting for the "Dream Act" so no charges have been approved yet!
Update: Chicago police detectives have been questioning and want to charge a 24-year-old prison inmate with murder in the shooting death last summer of off-duty police Officer Michael Bailey, but charges aren’t being filed yet because Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez is out of town, sources told the Chicago Sun-Times Friday. WHAT? Anita Alvarez doesn't have a cell phone? God forbid she misses a press conference... UNFUCKING-BELIEVABLE!
A 24-year-old prison inmate is being questioned in the 2010 slaying of Chicago Police Officer Michael Bailey, sources told the Tribune tonight.The man was sent to prison Downstate after his arrest last September on vehicular hijacking and weapons charges. At that time, he had been on parole following a 2009 conviction for aggravated battery to a peace officer and a 2008 drug conviction.
The man has not been charged in the officer’s killing, and no one is officially calling him a suspect.
Bailey, 62, was shot early on the morning of July 18 last year while cleaning his new Buick -- a retirement gift to himself -– outside his home in the 7400 block of South Evans Avenue in the South Side’s Park Manor neighborhood, police said.
He was still in his uniform after spending his overnight shift guarding the home of then-Mayor Richard Daley when someone approached and tried to steal Bailey’s Buick or rob him. There was an exchange of gunfire between Bailey and his killer before the officer was shot, police have said. Bailey was pronounced dead later that morning at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
A 20-year police department veteran, Bailey worked for the Central Police District. When he died, Bailey was about a month away from turning 63, the mandatory retirement age for Chicago police officers.
