Defendant escapes, briefly, from bond court

A defendant escaped from the Cook County criminal court house Tuesday, bolting past guards at his bond hearing and making it out a side door and across the street before he was chased down by Sheriff’s deputies.

Judge Michael D. Clancy had set bail at $50,000 for Quishaun Chambers on a charge of aggravated battery to a police officer, when Chambers ran from the courtroom, into a corridor and out a fire exit that had been the entrance to the criminal courts building, said Cara Smith, director of policy for Sheriff Tom Dart.

Chambers’ run to freedom lasted about 400 yards, as he was hauled down by sheriff’s officers in the courtyard of a South California Avenue apartment complex across the street from the Leighton Criminal Court Building. Smith said the Sheriff’s Office is investigating how Chamber was able to make it out of the courtroom.

Chambers was returned to the courtroom, where Clancy revisited his ruling on Chambers’ case and ordered him held without bond.

Including the few minutes he spent pinned to the ground by half a dozen deputies before being loaded into a Sheriff’s van and returned to the courtroom, Chambers’ escape lasted about 15 minutes.