As Michael Kwidzinski and his parents were escorted Wednesday into Courtroom 101 at the Cook County Criminal Courts Building by sheriff’s deputies, they passed a tall African-American man in the hallway.
“Hold your head up, don’t be scared,” the man said sarcastically to Kwidzinski, whose eyes were locked on the floor. “You’re in trouble now.”
The comment was blunt and brief, but it summed up the collective feeling of many in the African-American community–particularly those who packed the 80-seat courtroom to watch as Victor Jasas, 17, Frank Caruso, 18, and Kwidzinski, 19, were indicted on charges of attempted murder, aggravated battery and hate crimes for the beating of 13-year-old Lenard Clark last month on the South Side.
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The indictments by a Cook County grand jury were expected, and while the three suspects are scheduled to be arraigned on May 8, a trial is not likely to begin for many months after that.
The most serious of the charges, attempted murder, carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 6 years in prison. The other charges carry 2-to-5 year prison sentences.
“I’m here because my son can’t be here,” said Lenard Clark Sr., the beating victim’s father, who watched the five-minute court proceeding before Circuit Judge Lon William Shultz. “I’m here to make sure that justice is served.”
Kwidzinski, Jasas and Caruso are accused of attacking Clark on the evening of March 21 as Clark and two friends wandered near Armour Square Park. Police say the accused youths shouted racial epithets as they knocked Clark off his bicycle and kicked and beat him. Clark was found unconscious minutes later in the 3200 block of South Princeton Avenue.
Although prosecutors have refused to comment on evidence, sources say two other Bridgeport youths who accompanied the suspects on the night of the attack have given statements incriminating the three alleged assailants and testified before the grand jury. The two youths say they saw at least part of the attack and heard Caruso, Jasas and Kwidzinski bragging about it immediately afterward, sources say.
A third Bridgeport youth who was present during the attack also gave a statement to police incriminating the youths charged in the case, but later invoked his 5th Amendment rights and refused to answer questions before the grand jury.
Clevan Nicholson, a 13-year-old African-American youth who accompanied Clark on the night of the attack, said he picked one of the suspects out of a lineup. An 18-year-old Hispanic man who was with the two African-American boys when the attack occurred also was able to identify two of the suspects, sources said.
But outside the courtroom, lawyers representing Kwidzinski and Jasas denied Wednesday that their clients were involved in the Clark beating. They also denied that the attack was a hate crime. Edward Genson, who represents Caruso, refused to comment.
“It was not a racial incident,” said Kevin Bolger, who represents Kwidzinski. “It’s just happenstance that Lenard Clark was black.”
But that’s not the way the 50 or so African-American protesters standing outside the courtroom view the attack on Clark.
As the suspects and their families were led out of the courthouse shortly after 11 a.m., the protesters showered them with jeers and shouted, “Hang those white boys” and “Cowards.”
Many demonstrators said they were at the courthouse to show support for Lenard Clark and to express outrage that a criminal court judge had allowed the suspects out on bond pending the outcome of the case. Others were upset that the three suspects were given protection by sheriff’s deputies as they were escorted in and out of the courthouse.
“They are treating them like saints,” said Sherman Hart, 31.
Still, the police escort seemed to do little to diffuse the apparent shock on the faces of the three suspects as they were surrounded by protesters and a horde of media on the courthouse steps. The suspects looked straight ahead or down at the ground as they moved quickly through the crowd.
After the suspects and their families were driven away from the courthouse, a dozen ministers and Clark supporters stood in a circle on top of the steps, holding hands for a moment of prayer while singing and chanting.
In the prayer, Rev. Paul Jakes, president of the West Side NAACP, said that the group had come together in the spirit of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who preached non-violence and racial tolerance.
“We come believing today that justice will abide. . . . We believe, Lord, that we will overcome today,” Jakes shouted to the group, who responded with cries of “Amen.”