Embrace GRAYce

We will call this part 2 of Ant’s Tragically Beautiful Story. You can find Part 1 here: What Happens When Government is the Problem AND Solution?

Anthony’s chapter book isn’t over yet… you’ve met him in almost every blog post I’ve written. Our stories got tangled over the past few years and I’m working through the knots “journaling” and publishing my dear diary entries here 😇

This one’s for you brother. I’m here for you. There will be more posts for you. This whole adventure is for you.

MEET

People v. ANTHONY THOMPSON

18CF558 ET AL – dismissed/graduated PSC;

19CF1052 ET AL – dismissed/graduated PSC;

20CF1311(DUI) – amended to misdemeanor. Closed;

24CFXXX ET AL – WARRANTS FOR ARREST OUTSTANDING.

I first met Anthony in Problem Solving Courts aka PSC when he was my Defendant. I love felons I know, I know…. I digress.

Who am I kidding.. I dismissed the above cases with a smile on my face.

Evolution of our relationship:

• 2019-22: Prosecutor & Defendant;
• 22-23: Government Official Work Colleagues;
• 2024-?: Prosecutor & Defendant, again 😢

Once a criminal, always a criminal right? How naive of silly ol me. I disagree. You’ll have to listen to my perspective to understand why…..

Will County aka Old County PSC consists of Drug, Mental Health, and Veteran Courts and had approximately 300 felony participants at any given time. The main goal of PSCs is to provide resources to address the underlying reason for criminality (addiction, mental health, trauma or a combination thereof) to promote public safety at a significantly lower cost to taxpayers than incarceration. 

I resigned as the lead prosecutor of Will County PSC on August 1st, 2023 after 8.5 years with the State’s Attorney’s Office (SAO). I left proud and on good terms. I needed to prioritize my family. I wasn’t paid to be on call 24/7 or work 70 hour weeks.

PSC was my happy place for 4.5 years. A little island of PSC misfit toys. No other attorneys until “Problem Child” came along. More on her later. She’s a diamond amongst dirty, crusty rocks. Lawyers are generally miz… you can’t blame us when our profession is based in divisiveness.

The staff working to support PSC consisted of a unique, yet balanced, mix of book smart social workers, coordinators, probation officers, housing managers & one crazy blonde lawyer with a million naive embrace GRAYce dreams.

And then there was what I would call the heart of our staff. Our “street educated” Peer Support team of Ant & Rob. Ebony & Ivory. They were partners in crime & the best coworkers around. Not hurting near as much from their past traumas and continuing to heal daily through educating others with their life experience. Novel concept. Anthony went to school for it while he was in his last phase of Drug Court.

May sound like a big team. It was necessary to support a beautiful, cohesive, cost-efficient solution to a glaring problem in the justice system. Accountability and Rehabilitation. We still didn’t have enough staff or resources to sustain the 300 clients in PSC & 120 people on the referral list. My repeated polite requests that turned into begging & crying for help, went unheard. Until I used my voice to resign. Like the “problem child” who took my spot did a month ago when she also resigned. That’s when I lost what little hope I had for PSC.

Personally speaking, I looked at us all, regardless of education, as members of a team….

I quickly realized after resigning that Rob & Ant were hired to be pawns in Jimmy G’s egotistical, political chess game.

Can’t let his true red colors show through that blue mask, so he hired a few token felons. JUSTICE!

Ant & Rob were part of the “team”, only if they were being good boys to get Jimmy G positive publicity.

How do you go from part of the “team” working full time providing peer support to your community on behalf OF THE PEOPLE…….. to back on the streets in full blown addiction with a handful of outstanding arrest warrants in less than a year?

Jimmy G has double digit job openings available in his government office if you want to find out…Or ask my best friend Anthony Thompson.

I’m not afraid of my truth… anymore at least. There’s quite a few people who worked hard to silence me. Jokes on them now.

My truth: every time my phone rings and its unknown or Ant’s family, I hesitate to answer. I’m afraid his decisions today will lead to a cruel, unfair, literal heart stopping “The End”.

“You’re born looking like your parents, you die looking like your decisions, don’t ever forget that Jackie”.

Ant said those exact words to me almost daily when we worked for Will County’s Problem Solving Courts (PSC) together. That was only a year ago today, kind of like this memory from facebook.

Truly. What a difference a year makes.

I selfishly needed to hear Ant’s deep, smooth, preacher-like voice reminding me about the impact of my decisions this month.

The tables turned when I was saying those words to him on the phone yesterday… It was the first time I spoke with him in almost a month… When I first started this post.

Anthony Thompson is the protagonist in my non-fiction book. The protagonist drives the action & is central to the plot or conflict of a story.

The antagonist in literature is the “person who creates obstacles for the main character or protagonist. In many cases, the antagonist is a foil of the protagonist, meaning that the two characters display opposite personality or character traits. In some cases, an antagonist is not a person at all but a force of nature, creature, internal struggle, or society as a whole.”

Any guesses on who will be the antagonist in Ant & I’s stories? The ultimate answer may surprise you, but it’ll be many parts until we get there…

Today, Ant’s lost at least 40 pounds. He’s looking a lot like his decisions right now and I don’t totally blame him…

Not like his old boss Jimmy G could pay the cost of treatment to support Ant when I asked a dozen times last year.

I thought it would be simple… It should’ve been simple… PSC sends Defendants from jail/home to treatment almost daily… no less than 20 options to choose from…

I had a bed reserved at a facility in St. Charles. Just needed the copay…

In September 2023, Jimmy G sent his big law attorneys after me at my new job because I asked him for help like he said at graduations (see video below). I realized my error was asking with the assumption he’d do the right thing.

I swallowed my white hat of justice pride & paid the co-pay myself. Problem Solving makes me happy. Supporting Anthony was the easy choice without an ego to protect.

My communication, Ms. Big Law Counsel, was a simple request for Jimmy G to do the right thing and support Anthony so he didn’t go down a slippery slope. Welp….

I expected Jimmy G to show compassion for one of his own taxpayers, a human being, a man in remission for almost three years, a Good Samaritan dedicated to helping the community he was born & raised in, his own darn employee who graduated just a year earlier from the same Drug Court he worked himself back into addiction to support…

Instead, Jimmy G further stigmatized & discriminated against Anthony letting him slide down that slippery slope when he returned home from the treatment I paid for.

What exactly am I paying you for again?

Given Ms. Big Law Counsel is a partner in a Big Law firm in Chicago, I’m guessing her hourly rate is $475…. How much of my taxpayer money was spent drafting up those thinly veiled threats, a series of text messages and locating my new private e-mail? Did you call my new HR?

No less than 3k.

A text message referencing ethical obligations is a pretty cute threat…..

Must feel good up on that pedestal of justice, Ms. Big Law Counsel. You got me to shut up for ten months. Kudos.

My big feelings are loud with outrage now. Those messages told me everything I needed to understand about unaccountable elected officials.

Jimmy G’s ego was worth more to him than providing support to an individual who so desperately needed help in his time of need after being there for everyone else.

I’m glad as a private tax paying citizen of Will County, I now know Mr. Glasgow will only answer my call for help when he can use it for good press.

Par for the course with the culture of UNaccountability in our local government. There’s clearly enough in that 20 million dollar budget for hair products and extraordinary canines. Not enough to get his employee the help that he desperately needed last year.

Jimmy G recently showed his support for Anthony by charging him with a few felonies and getting warrants for his arrest that are currently outstanding… I really thought we kicked him of the “Fugitive from Justice” title in 2022 when he graduated Drug Court.

With confidence I can tell you that the amount of money spent charging Ant with those felony cases far exceeded the $984 actual cost of treatment and $0 it costs to show respect and support to a human in need.

The human & fiscally responsible choice.

For the sake of TRUTH, as this blog is a fact finding adventure, a special prosecutor was appointed in place of Jimmy G to represent “The People of the State of Illinois” technically… guess it doesn’t look very good to prosecute your former employee(s)… this isn’t Jimmy’s G’s first time..

Not that he would know how to prosecute Anthony as he’d have to actually show up in a courtroom.

Talk about plot twist……… although my highly sensitive nature sensed it. Ant, Rob, the PSC clients & staff, were the only reasons I hung on through the vicarious trauma, deaths & lack of support before I resigned.

It didn’t surprise Anthony’s jaded PSC coworkers who refused to see Anthony as a colleague and he would “always be a Defendant” in their eyes.

Be careful of what you say and “Never burn a bridge”, right? WRONG. Especially if its a bridge you never want to cross again.

My parents nicknamed me “exclamation point” for a reason. By definition it is “basically a signal to a reader that a sentence is trying to express strong emotion or intensity.” I have big feelings. A lot of em. Makes me feel like a bit of an outcast in the legal field. Facts not feelings 🤪

Here’s a few facts that I know….

In 2022, Ant was hired as a SAO employee to support the same drug court program he graduated from. He spoke at a PSC graduation on September 7th pictured below. I’ve never heard a packed room so quiet, hanging on to Ant’s every word. I was so proud from the audience watching my degenerate fam on stage, Callie girl was up there too that day.

The way Jimmy G talks about peer and alumni support at graduations you would think he bathed the heart of PSC in gold. Supported them. Jokes on me. That seven time elected Democrat State’s Attorney up for re-election in November unopposed, was and is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Smoke and mirrors. Fluff with no substance.

“If you feel like using or need help, pick up the phone, any hour of the day, we will be there to help.”

HA. HA. HA.

Another favorite is when he notes the lowered recidivism rates amongst HIS PSC graduate population. Well…. A harsh but dare I say sobering reality here, dead people can’t commit crimes.

Personally speaking, if a large percent of my graduates were dead because I failed them as I conveniently forgot they existed when they “successfully graduated”, I personally wouldn’t use that as a selling point.

When I asked Jimmy G for help last fall, I was naive enough to think I still wore that white hat of justice with him. I had just left his government office after fulfilling the promises that he loudly made to the public, but never intended to keep behind closed doors.

At least I’m a woman of my word, just like I know you are a man of yours, Ant.

Ant’s words from yesterday…

That’s not a man that needs to be locked up to think about “what he did” at taxpayer’s expense. It’s a traumatized man who needs help.

“If you feel like using or need help, pick up the phone, any hour of the day, we will be there to help.” —— phone’s ringing, no one is answering….

Maybe they’re at a conference talking about how great the program is….

The cost of his Assistant State’s Attorney’s flight was likely more than the cost of Anthony’s co-pay.

Where would you rather have your taxpayer money spent?

Hold our government accountable for silencing victims, repeated inaction & wasteful spending.

Keep the finger pointed in the right place.