A West Side woman was sentenced to a year behind bars Thursday for kicking a Cook County Sheriff’s deputy in the shin at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse.
Tina Silas faced a mandatory minimum six-year sentence because of her previous convictions for violent crimes committed decades ago, according to her attorney, Jeffrey Neslund.
But Judge Erica Reddick vacated 49-year-old Silas’ aggravated battery conviction, and Silas pleaded guilty to a lesser felony — resisting arrest/obstructing an officer.
Silas kicked the officer in November 2013 when she was at the courthouse for a case involving her son.
Silas was convicted in the matter last year.
It was her third Class 2 felony.
Under Illinois law, the judge, at the time, had no option but to sentence her to a half dozen years in prison. But Neslund pushed to have the lengthy sentenced reduced.
Given the time Silas has already served, she could be out of prison in two months.
