Judge pointed to SAFE-T Act, freed suspected cop killer on ankle monitor ‘over the state’s rigorous objection’

The Cook County judge who released a repeat violent felon with four pending felony cases on electronic monitoring last December, the same felon prosecutors now say escaped that monitoring and shot two Chicago police officers, killing one over the weekend, acknowledged during the hearing that the defendant likely would have faced “a minimum $1 million bail” under the state’s old cash bail system. But Judge John Lyke said that era was over. alley’s public defender, Lauren Widdowson, countered that he had changed while in custody. “He’s completed eight courses,” she said. “Particularly, he has completed the Rewired Program, Anger Management,...