Charles “Chuck” Leto, 55, isn’t rich. He doesn’t own a car, a house, or anything flashy. He’s a quiet, law-abiding Marine Corps veteran who rides a bicycle and takes the CTA from his modest home on the North Side to his seasonal lifeguard job at Douglass Park on the West Side. That’s right. He earns an honest living keeping people safe, not hurting anyone. But in the twisted landscape of Chicago, even that can get you thrown in a cage. Leto is white. And the several teens who tried to rob him were black. That racial dynamic matters because it’s the very element being used to twist the narrative into something it’s not,  a hate crime in reverse, where the guy who defends himself is branded the racist simply for surviving. Then there is an issue of fake news.  They reported that Marjay Dotson was shot in the back.  The truth? The police report I have in my possession says he was struck in his RIGHT FLANK.  Leto’s workplace is a decaying ghetto pool in the West Side w...

When it comes to illegal aliens, the media just can’t stop playing word games. Every few years they come up with a fresh coat of lipstick for the same pig. Anything to make the illegal seem noble. Back in the day, people called them what they were. “Wetbacks” was the term for those who swam the Rio Grande to sneak into the country. Crude? Maybe. Accurate? You bet. Then someone in a newsroom decided “illegal alien” was too honest, too harsh, too real. So they invented the term “undocumented immigrant.” As if the only issue here was a missing permission slip. Right. And a bank robber is just an “unlicensed withdrawal specialist.” Now, with ICE occasionally remembering how to do its job and picking these folks up, the media shifts gears again. Suddenly, they’re not lawbreakers, they’re “fathers” and “mothers.” Because if you give them a title from a Hallmark card, maybe everyone forgets they’re violating federal law. The propaganda machine never sleeps. Meanwhile, the Biden administra...

Since the 2024 election, the Democrat Party has transformed into a rudderless ghost ship, drifting in circles with no captain, no map, and definitely no clue. Picture the political version of the Lost Dutchman, except the crew is made up of virtue-signaling ideologues who just discovered that criminals don’t care about gun control. For years, they’ve preached that guns are the root of all evil. They pushed every law imaginable to make it harder for regular Americans to own firearms, all while living in gated communities and hiring private security. Guns were for the “uneducated,” they said, for the “paranoid,” for “Trump voters.” Now? They’re racing to gun stores like panicked shoppers at a fire sale. In deep blue states, these same liberals are suddenly discovering what a bureaucratic nightmare it actually is to buy a gun. They can’t believe they can’t just walk in, flash their ID, and walk out with a shiny new Sig Sauer. Welcome to the tangled mess of gun laws you cheered for. Wai...

A lot. In fact, more than most people realize. When someone is falsely accused of a crime, the system does not spring into action to protect them. Quite the opposite. It barrels forward like a runaway train, powered by the assumptions of guilt and the blind momentum of prosecution. At the start of a criminal case, the police take control. They gather the evidence, they write the reports, and they decide what to include and what to leave out. The law requires them to turn over any evidence that might help the defense. That’s what the Supreme Court said in Brady v. Maryland. But that ideal often goes straight into the shredder. Whether by incompetence, laziness, or outright dishonesty, crucial evidence that could prove a person’s innocence gets ignored or hidden. That’s how innocent people end up in prison. Or on death row. This is where the defense investigator enters the picture. It is our job to find what others failed to look for or deliberately avoided. We talk to witnesses the ...

It was October 19, 1970. I was just four months out of the Army and trying to settle back into my role with the Cook County Sheriff’s Police. I was in the old courthouse at 2600 South California Avenue, standing on the sixth floor when the peace shattered. Gunfire. Sharp, echoing cracks bouncing off every inch of the marble like the whole damn building was made of a snare drum. I drew my gun and bolted up the stairs to the seventh floor. As I turned the corner, a blast of marble debris smacked me across the face. For a second, I thought I’d been shot. I ducked back, heart pounding, just in time to hear a voice calmly say, “He’s finished now.” They weren’t kidding. About 19 rounds had been fired. Two uniformed officers and a plainclothes detective had emptied their six-shot revolvers into a well-dressed dead man—Gene Lewis, also known as “The Iceman.” He lay on the ground, stone cold and face up, still rocking an iridescent green suit, white shirt, and matching green tie. One handcuf...

. Criminal trials are supposed to be about justice. They’re meant to protect rights, uncover the truth, and apply the law. But in today’s world, they’re just another form of garbage entertainment for the lowest common denominator. Nancy Grace and those circus clowns at Court TV figured out how to get rich by turning real human tragedy into soap opera trash. They don’t care about justice. They care about ratings, outrage, and keeping the blood flowing for the camera. Then come the lawyers. Not the kind who care about their clients or the law. I’m talking about the fame-chasers. The ones who would rather be on camera than in a law library. Remember the Jodi Arias case? Both a prosecutor and a defense attorney ended up disgraced and disbarred. Why? Because when the lights go on, the dignity goes out. These trials become media events. Think O.J. Simpson, Scott Peterson, Phil Spector, and now Karen Read. People line up for hours just to sit in the gallery. Some bring snacks. Others just ...

Chicago, Illinois — The stage is set once more for a courtroom battle soaked in blood and betrayal. Dr. Wyndham Lathem, once a respected Northwestern University immunology professor, now awaits his retrial for a murder that stunned the city. The killing took place in July 2017. The victim, Trenton Cornell-Duranleau, a 26-year-old hairstylist, was found butchered in his North State Street apartment. He had been stabbed more than 50 times in what authorities described as a twisted, premeditated act of sexual violence. Two men were arrested. Lathem, the academic, and Andrew Warren, a payroll clerk from Oxford, England. While both were convicted, it was Warren who came across as the more violent and unhinged of the two. Back in the United Kingdom, he had been previously convicted of armed kidnapping and sexual assault on another male but those records are hidden from the public by British law. He was no choirboy. Desperate for a conviction, prosecutors cut a deal with Warren to testify...