Judge eats his words
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Will County judge says he's eating his words after accepting a tray of jerk chicken as a substitute for a man's sentence of 100 community service hours.
The local legal community has been abuzz since associate Judge Robert Livas accepted the Jamaican-style chicken from Darrius Logan this month over an objection from a prosecutor. Logan, 24, pleaded guilty last year to misdemeanor battery and criminal trespass charges after an incident in Joliet.Logan told the judge in August he performed his community service by working 100 unpaid hours at Uncle Joe's Jerk Chicken, a popular Jamaican restaurant chain on Chicago's South Side. According to court transcripts, the judge told Logan to return in two months with either proof that he had completed the service hours elsewhere or with enough spiced chicken to feed the courtroom.
Livas said he was surprised Oct. 6 when Logan carried in a tray of Uncle Joe's jerk chicken, bread and two sides of hot sauce. Someone brought out paper plates, and people in the fourth-floor courtroom dug in.
Livas, a former prosecutor and Chicago police officer, said it was simply a joke gone awry. "A defendant took something I said as a joke literally," said Livas. "It forced me to keep my word and accept his original (community service) letter. I give him credit -- he made me eat my words."
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