This happened a little more than a week ago, but a prominent Chicago Tribune reporter, Jeff Coen, who was at the center of the newspaper's investigative reporting on the wire-tapping and impending arrest of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich thanks to carefully timed leaks from former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, was arrested for kicking out a window on a CTA train and charged with misdemeanor criminal mischief.
A surveillance video captured Coen kicking the window hard enough on the CTA's Red Line train to break it out on May 9, causing about $1,500 in damages. After the video was circulated to help identify the culprit, Coen turned himself into Chicago Police weeks later. Coen declined to respond to media inquiries from his own newspaper about his arrest. How about that?
Coen and his colleague at the Tribune, John Chase, co-authored a book on Blagojevich's arrest, impeachment and trial on public corruption charges, "Golden: How Rod Blagojevich Talked Himself Out of the Governor's Office and Into Prison." That book has been a source of controversy since the two reporters claimed in it that they had access to all of the FBI recordings made of Blagojevich during the investigation, which have thus far been withheld from the public under an order of the federal district court in Chicago which tried Blagojevich at the request of the U.S. Attorney's Office. Blagojevich and his attorneys always maintained that recordings the trial court judge blocked from being admitted at trial would have helped Blagojevich win an acquittal. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has yet to rule on Blagojevich's appeal after conducting an oral argument last December.
"A surveillance video captured Coen kicking the window hard enough on the CTA's Red Line"
ReplyDeleteJust a point of pride. That's properly called the Howard Line, not the "Red Line." Chicagoans aren't what they used to be.
To correct Anon 7:00 a.m. It is properly called the "Red Line." The Howard Line has not existed for years. It's been quite some time since the CTA renamed the routes to make them easier to identify.
ReplyDeleteKicking out a window of a train is not normal behavior. Was there any indication of drunkenness or drug abuse?