Man's social media post about pending firearm case threatens judge, gets him jail and $500K bail
Headed to court for a hearing in an Illinois felony firearm case on Tuesday, Jerome McKinney decided to make a few social media posts.
Now the 22-year-old Chicago man is being held in lieu of $500,000 bond on a new charge of threatening a public official in the Bridgeview Branch Court case, reports the Chicago Tribune.
McKinney posted on Twitter that he was going to “beat the judge ass” if he didn’t get probation, a prosecutor said during a Saturday court hearing in the new case. McKinney also posted on an Instagram account a photo of himself and a co-defendant in Circuit Judge Thomas Davy’s Bridgeview courtroom, along with what the newspaper describes as a disparaging comment about the judge and the comment “I go to court ganged out,” said assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Jennifer Cooper.
By Tuesday evening, Chicago police were at McKinney’s door. He voluntarily unlocked his cellphone and showed detectives his social media posts, court documents say.
The Tribune article doesn’t include any comment from McKinney or his legal counsel.
