Pritzker says felon was unlucky to land in his yard
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said a 10-time convicted felon arrested July 4 in his Gold Coast backyard "landed in a very unlucky circumstance," not a targeted attack. Pritzker also said electronic monitoring clearly failed in the case after Dwayne Milton jumped his fence.
State police detained Dwayne Milton, 46, around 10 p.m. at the governor's Chicago residence. He was on an ankle monitor for a retail theft case and faced a warrant for monitoring violations. For more odd crime headlines, see our Bizarre News & Florida Man coverage.
Key Takeaways
- Pritzker said Milton was unlucky to jump the fence that happened to be his, not targeting the governor.
- Milton, a 10-time felon with more than 60 Cook County cases, was charged with criminal trespass.
- Pritzker admitted electronic monitoring "clearly" failed while defending judges' pretrial release role.
- GOP rivals, including Darren Bailey, tied the arrest to criticism of the SAFE-T Act.
- Milton later pleaded guilty to retail theft and received a one-year prison sentence.
What happened at Pritzker's home on July 4?
According to Chicago Tribune reporting and police records, Near North District officers responded about 10 p.m. to assist an Illinois State Police officer at Pritzker's Astor Street home.
Milton allegedly jumped the fence into the backyard and "gained access to the inside of the property," though it was unclear whether he entered a building. CWB Chicago reported a trooper watching security cameras saw him scale the rear gate before troopers detained him in the yard and turned him over to Chicago police.
He was charged with misdemeanor criminal trespass and arrested on an outstanding warrant tied to electronic monitoring violations in a retail theft case that began with alleged shoplifting of about $55 from an Uptown Walgreens in late April.
Why did Pritzker call the felon unlucky?
Speaking with The Center Square, Pritzker said it did not appear Milton was targeting him and that he felt lucky to have Illinois State Police protection.
"I think this is a person who landed in a very unlucky circumstance of choosing to jump a fence on my block that happened to be my fence," Pritzker said.
Asked about second thoughts on pretrial release, he said a judge, with a prosecutor and defense attorney present, is best placed to decide if someone is a danger to the community. He still pressed Cook County judges on monitoring reform: who gets it, how it is done, and whether it is done well enough. "It clearly in this case wasn't," he said.
Court records cited by CWB Chicago and the Tribune show Milton racked up curfew and AWOL alerts after Judge Aleksandra Gillespie rereleased him on monitoring June 17. A warrant issued June 25 remained open until the July 4 arrest. After the trespass arrest, he pleaded guilty July 8 to the retail theft charge, was sentenced to a year in the Illinois Department of Corrections, and was held at Stateville near Joliet. A trespassing court date was set for July 27.
How are Republicans using the Pritzker yard arrest?
State Rep. Patrick Sheehan, R-Homer Glen, told The Center Square the governor's crime policies "landed in his own back yard," asking what might have happened to another family without the governor's security team.
Republican gubernatorial challenger Darren Bailey used the arrest in a fundraising email arguing the SAFE-T Act let a repeat offender offend again. The Tribune noted it is unclear whether Milton would have stayed jailed under the old cash-bail system, and that Bailey's email summary conflicted with police records on some points.
Prison records show Milton previously served time for burglary, retail theft, drug possession, armed robbery, and aggravated battery dating to the late 1990s. The bizarre backyard arrest instantly became both a security story and a campaign talking point.