(The following story by Mike Robinson appeared on the Chicago Daily Southtown website on November 2.)
CHICAGO — A federal magistrate reversed herself Friday and dismissed charges against a South Side man who had been accused of firing shots at a Metra Electric Line train.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Nan R. Nolan’s change of heart evidently caught federal prosecutors by surprise and they immediately said that the case was far from over.
“While we respect the judge’s decision, we strongly disagree, and this investigation is continuing,” said Randall Samborn, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office which had brought the charges.
Telly Virgin, 31, of the 7000 block of South Calumet Avenue, had been in custody since Oct. 26 on a federal complaint charging him with endangering a train by firing a gun at it.
At a hearing Friday, Nolan listened as prosecutors and an FBI agent said that two witnesses had identified Virgin as the one who had stood on the platform with the gun.
Virgin was charged in one incident June 8 at the Stewart Ridge Station at 121st Street and South Harvard Avenue. Prosecutors said that something similar had happened two days earlier.
Nolan initially said Friday morning that she would allow the case to go forward, saying prosecutors had come up with enough evidence to warrant taking the evidence to a federal grand jury for possible indictment.
But even then she wavered slightly, telling prosecutors she expected them to let the grand jury know that two other witnesses had been unable to identify Virgin as the shooter.
Minutes after she made her decision to let the case go forward, though, Nolan evidently had qualms. She called the attorneys back and asked for more arguments. After that, she held that there was not enough evidence to warrant taking the case to the grand jury and dismissed it.
Despite being freed of the federal charge, Virgin was not immediately released. He remained in custody in lieu of $150,000 bail on a state firearms charge.