© Chicago Police DepartmentBrittany Covington, 18, of Chicago; (clockwise from upper left) Tesfaye Cooper, 18, of Chicago; Jordan Hill, 18, of Carpentersville; and Tanishia Covington, 24, of Chicago. Each is charged with a hate crime, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated unlawful restraint and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
'It is sad and unfortunate that many have commented on these young men and women without knowing all the facts,' said Cook County Public Defender Amy Campanelli after a hearing on Friday. 'They have been denounced in the media before anything has been proven.'
She said that 'sensationalized, pervasive media coverage' threatens to poison the jury pool. Neil Toppel, a public defender for one of the defendants, cited an online post calling for the 'public execution' of the defendants and their supporters.
'There was a posting that invited a Good Samaritan to publicly execute these defendants by law or if not by mob,' Toppel told reporters. 'And said anybody that supports them should be executed as well.'
Public defenders are representing all of the suspects.
Judge Peggy Chiampas has barred cameras and sketch artists from the court during preliminary hearings for the four defendants.
The four were indicted Friday and their arraignment was scheduled for February 10. Previously, the judge had denied bail and asked the foursome 'Where is your sense of decency?'
Among the charges the four face are aggravated kidnapping and two counts of committing a hate crime - one because of the victim's race and the other because of his mental disabilities.
The suspects allegedly kidnapped the victim, who suffers from schizophrenia, on New Year's Eve, tied him up, slashed and kicked him, and forced him to drink from a toilet.
The graphic cellphone video shows the four black suspects taunting the white victim with profanities against white people and President-elect Donald Trump.
They also demanded $300 from the victim's mother if she wanted her son back, said a prosecutor.
The beating was captured on cellphone video by one of the assailants and has since been viewed millions of times on social media. Prosecutors have said the 18-year-old victim has schizophrenia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
The defendants are three 18-year-olds - Jordan Hill of Carpentersville, Brittany Covington of Chicago and Tesfaye Cooper of Chicago - and 24-year-old Tanishia Covington of Chicago.
The incident began New Year's Eve, when the victim and alleged assailant Jordan Hill met at a suburban McDonald's, and then called his parents later to say he was staying with Hill for a sleepover.
Instead, Hill drove the victim around in a stolen van for a couple of days, ending up at a home in Chicago, where two of the other suspects lived, police said.
The victim eventually escaped and a police officer spotted him wandering down a street, bloodied and disoriented.
With the Associated Press
Aren't these kids just doing what Chicago police do to people in their cells?