CHICAGO _ Moments after Cook County prosecutors announced Friday they had indicted four people for attacking a teen with mental disabilities live on Facebook video, the county's public defender blasted what she called "sensationalized" media coverage that has led to death threats against the defendants and their lawyers.
Jordan Hill, Tesfaye Cooper and sisters Tanishia and Brittany Covington appeared briefly in court, where Judge Peggy Chiampas barred courtroom sketch artists from drawing their faces or the faces of their attorneys, citing safety and security risks. A day earlier, the judge had ruled no cameras would be allowed to cover the hearing.
Public Defender Amy Campanelli said outside court that "it is sad and unfortunate" that the case has provoked widespread comment from people who don't know "all the facts." The case drew national outrage, including from some who attempted to link the attack by four African-Americans on an 18-year-old white man to the Black Lives Matter movement without evidence.
"Sensationalized, pervasive media coverage threatens to poison the jury pool for my clients," she said. "They have already been denounced in the media before anything has been proven.
"Worse these are young people who should not be held in jail but are being held without bond because they have been prejudged. We will be seeking their release from jail."
The case comes at a time when Chicago's gun violence is already in the spotlight and prompted reactions from politicians including former President Barack Obama.
Hill, 18, of Carpentersville; Cooper, 18, of Chicago; and Brittany Covington, 19, and her sister Tanishia, 24, were each charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crime, aggravated unlawful restraint and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. Hill also was charged with robbery, possession of a stolen motor vehicle and residential burglary, while both Covingtons were charged with residential burglary, prosecutors said.
Police allege Hill met with the victim, who was a classmate in Aurora, at a McDonald's in suburban Streamwood on Dec. 31 and drove him to an apartment on Chicago's West Side, where the attack began. The 28-minute live-streamed video showed the group punching and kicking the victim, cutting his scalp and hair with a knife, and forcing him to drink toilet water.
The perpetrators yelled "F--- Donald Trump" and "F--- white people," as the victim crouched in a corner, his mouth taped shut, hands and feet bound with what appeared to be orange electrical tape.
Lawyers for each defendant on Thursday objected to cameras being in court, citing concerns over safety and the possibility of inhibiting a fair trial.
Neil Toppel, a public defender for Brittany Covington, cited a Tumblr post calling for the "public execution" of the defendants and anyone who supported them.
"To me it sounds like someone put out a death warrant," Toppel told reporters after the hearing.
Prosecutors have said in court that the 18-year-old victim, who lives with his parents in suburban Streamwood, has schizophrenia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Campanelli has assigned three felony trial supervisors to the case along with an experienced public defender. She pledged Friday to "zealously" represent the four, starting with a motion to have their bail reduced after the case is assigned to a trial judge.
