The family of an 11-year-old Chicago boy murdered last year by his mother’s ex-boyfriend the day after he was released from prison is suing the state — including the embattled Prisoner Review Board and Illinois Department of Corrections— for negligence.
Jayden Perkins, an accomplished young dancer, was stabbed to death last March while his mother, Laterria Smith, sustained “multiple life-threatening stab wounds to her neck, back, and chest while desperately trying to protect her children,” according to one of the lawsuits she filed last week. Smith was pregnant at the time, while her then-5-year-old son witnessed the stabbing.
Ahead of the one-year anniversary of the attack last week, Smith filed a pair of complaints — one against the PRB in the Illinois Court of Claims and another in Cook County Circuit Court. The latter lawsuit names not only the PRB, but also its former chair and another member who resigned after the murder, plus an executive director appointed in the aftermath.
Read more: Prisoner Review Board chair, member resign in wake of boy’s fatal stabbing by released inmate
Additionally, the suit names IDOC, its acting director, the city of Chicago, the Chicago Police Department, Cook County, its Sheriff’s Department and elected sheriff. The filing claims that together, the defendants represented a system that failed to prevent Jayden’s death.
“Every single Defendant in this case had the power — and the legal duty — to intervene and stop this tragedy,” the lawsuit said. “Each of them failed.”
The complaint described the boy’s final moments as having been “filled with unimaginable agony and terror, knowing that he was dying, knowing that no one was coming to save him, and knowing that the very system that was supposed to protect him had abandoned him.”
Smith’s ex, Crosetti Brand, had been out of prison on GPS monitoring since the PRB granted him mandatory supervised release in October 2023 after he’d served roughly half of his 16-year sentence related to his attack of another woman in 2015.
As part of his release, he was ordered not to contact his 2015 victim or Smith, but in late January of last year, Brand allegedly threatened Smith via text message. Two days later, Brand allegedly showed up to her apartment, “attempting to force his way inside — a clear and direct violation of his protection order and parole conditions,” according to the lawsuit.
The suit alleges the Chicago Police officers who responded to Smith’s call for help refused to enforce her order of protection against Brand and told her to go to court for a new one.
Brand turned himself in the next day and was sent back to Stateville Correctional Center near Joliet while Smith’s allegations were investigated. In mid-February, Smith appeared before a Cook County judge who ruled that she wasn’t eligible for an emergency order of protection because Brand was in custody at the time, so the situation “did not amount to an emergency,” according to the complaint.
The judge scheduled a hearing for March 13, 2024 — the morning of the attack. But in the interim, a PRB panel heard Brand’s case and voted to release him, citing lack of evidence corroborating Smith’s allegations. Brand was released from Stateville on March 12, 2024.
The next day, Brand forced his way into Smith’s apartment as she was leaving to drop her two sons off at school, according to reporting from the Chicago Tribune at the time.
Smith’s lawsuit details her son’s actions as he allegedly stood in front of her and took the brunt of Brand’s stabbings.
“For his bravery, Jayden’s small body was torn apart by the very man the system had freed,” the complaint said. “He experienced every second of excruciating pain. He lay on the floor in a pool of his own blood, his little brother screaming in terror, his mother fighting for her life.”
Two weeks after Jayden’s death, Gov. JB Pritzker’s office announced the resignations of then-PRB Chair Donald Shelton and member LeAnn Miller, who had conducted Brand’s hearing.
Six of the 31 counts in Smith’s Cook County lawsuit are filed against the PRB, while six more single out Shelton and Miller as individuals.
In the first count, Smith accuses the PRB of “state-created danger and deliberate indifference,” alleging the agency “acted with … an utter disregard for human life.” Other counts claim negligence, “gross negligence and willful and wanton misconduct,” and even “intentional infliction of emotional distress.”
“Brand’s history of violence against women and disregard for legal restrictions established him as a significant and ongoing threat to those around him,” the lawsuit said. “Despite this, Defendant IPRB recklessly and knowingly granted parole to Brand, placing him back into the very community where his victim resided, ignoring overwhelming evidence that he remained a lethal threat.”
A spokesperson for the PRB declined to comment on pending litigation.
A set of reforms aimed at the agency stalled out in the waning days of the General Assembly’s 2024 spring session.
Read more: Stalled bills: ‘Dignity in Pay Act,’ Prisoner Review Board changes fail to move
The lawsuit had similar strong words for IDOC and its acting director, LaToya Hughes. She and her agency are named in nine counts of the lawsuit, claiming they “had a constitutional duty to intervene and prevent foreseeable harm when they had actual knowledge of a direct and escalating threat to” Smith.
“Instead, they deliberately turned a blind eye to Crosetti Brand’s repeated violations of parole, choosing bureaucratic inaction over intervention,” the complaint said.
A spokesperson for IDOC did not respond to a request for comment.
The complaint seeks a minimum of $50,000 for each of the 31 counts, while the suit filed in the Illinois Court of Claims seeks damages under the Illinois Crime Victims Compensation Act.
Brand is currently awaiting trial for Jayden’s killing at Lawrence Correctional Center in southeast Illinois. A Cook County judge set an initial hearing on Smith’s lawsuit for May 7.
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