Gang kingpin Larry Hoover won't return to Chicago for court appearance after judge opts for video

CHICAGO -- More than six weeks after ordering prosecutors to deliver Larry Hoover to his courtroom later this month, a federal judge says the notorious co-founder of the Gangster Disciples street gang will appear virtually through a video link instead.

U.S. District Judge John Blakey cited "logistical and safety concerns" in his order Friday.

Earlier, Blakey had told federal authorities to "make Mr. Hoover present in person" for a Sept. 26 hearing on Hoover's bid for a sentencing break under the First Step Act. The order was remarkable, given Hoover has been held for years in the federal supermax prison in Colorado.

Hoover's attorneys said the hearing would have been Hoover's first chance since the late 1990s, aside from medical visits, to leave the notorious prison.

"We are disappointed he will not be permitted to attend in person," Jennifer Bonjean, one of Hoover's defense attorneys, told the Chicago Sun-Times by text Friday. "He was greatly looking forward to participating in person. We have no idea what safety issues motivated the decision but it had nothing to do with Mr. Hoover's conduct as he has an exemplary record and even the [Bureau of Prisons] deems him low risk."

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Her co-counsel, Justin Moore, called the explanation "difficult to accept" and said Hoover was eager to "demonstrate the progress he's made over nearly 30 years of isolation."

The Dirksen Federal Courthouse has handled high-profile defendants with security concerns in the past. In late July, a son of imprisoned Sinaloa drug cartel kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera was arraigned there amid high security.

It still seems the public will have a chance to glimpse Hoover in Blakey's courtroom, though. His scheduled video appearance is reminiscent of the 2016 re-sentencing of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who appeared then by video after years out of public view.

Prosecutors adamantly oppose Hoover's bid for a new sentencing hearing. He ordered a murder in 1973 that led to his conviction in state court and a sentence of 150 to 200 years in Illinois' prison system. There, the feds say he ran a $100-million-a-year drug business as tens of thousands of gang soldiers continued to work for him in Chicago and elsewhere.

A federal investigation then led to Hoover's conviction for running a criminal enterprise. U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber sentenced Hoover to life in prison in 1998. Leinenweber died in June, and Blakey inherited the case.

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In making his latest bid for freedom, Hoover says he has renounced the Gangster Disciples.

"I am no longer a member, leader, or even an elder statesman of the Gangster Disciples," Hoover wrote in 2022. "I want nothing to do with it now and forever."

If Hoover is successful in undoing his federal life sentence, he would still have the state murder sentence to serve - and he'd likely do so in the federal prison system. But prosecutors have expressed concern Hoover would launch legal attacks on that case as well.

The video in the player above is from a previous report.

Source: ( Sun-Times Media Wire - Copyright Chicago Sun-Times 2024.)