[Fox News] Highland Park shooting suspect’s father asks judge to toss case charging him with helping son get gun license
Read Time:2 Minute, 14 Second
The father of the suspect in the deadly shooting at a Fourth of July parade in suburban Chicago last year wants the judge in the case to drop criminal charges accusing him of helping his son obtain a gun license before the massacre.
Robert Crimo Jr.’s lawyer, George Gomez, told the court during a hearing in Waukegan Monday that his client was charged under a law that is vague and unconstitutional. He said prosecutors charged Crimo Jr. for “innocent conduct” — signing “a wholly truthful” affidavit helping his son, Robert Crimo III, apply for and obtain a gun license.
Legal experts have said charges against parents following mass shootings are rare partially because the cases are difficult to prove.
Crimo Jr. has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of reckless conduct, one for each person killed. Each count carries a maximum three-year prison term. Prosecutors allege the father aided the son in getting a gun license even though he knew the then-19-year-old had previously threatened violence.
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Per state law, “a person commits reckless conduct when he or she, by any means lawful or unlawful, recklessly performs an act or acts that… cause great bodily harm or permanent disability or disfigurement to another person.”
Crimo Jr.’s lawyers argued that the law makes it impossible to know what actions qualify as criminal conduct. It says the law also offers no definition of “cause,” opening the way for prosecutors to link the signing of a gun-license application to a shooting years later.
Lake County Judge George Strickland said at Monday’s hearing he would issue a ruling at the next hearing, on Aug. 28. If he rejects Gomez’s arguments and allows the case to proceed, Crimo Jr.’s bench trial would start Nov. 6.
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A grand jury indicted the son last year on 21 first-degree murder counts, 48 counts of attempted murder and 48 counts of aggravated battery, representing the seven people killed and dozens wounded in the July 4, 2022, attack. Potential evidence is voluminous in the son’s case and no trial date has been set. He has pleaded not guilty.
Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said after the father’s arrest that the accusations against him are based on sponsorship of his son’s application for a gun license in December 2019. Authorities say Crimo III tried to kill himself in April 2019 and in September 2019 was accused by a family member of making threats to “kill everyone.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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