By Mary Mitchell
The Chicago Sun-Times
CHICAGO — Shawn Gaston, the 20-year-old accused of fatally shooting Chicago Police Officer Alejandro Valadez, is every judge’s nightmare.
Gaston appeared to be the kind of young person community and social activists are trying to save.
When he was arrested two years ago for carrying a handgun, Cook County Criminal Court Judge Bertina Lampkin, a 22-year veteran, gave him probation.
But Lampkin’s decision not to put the young man behind bars after he violated conditions imposed by that probation has caused her grief.
Fraternal Order of Police members are lambasting Lampkin and calling on Chief Cook County Judge Timothy Evans to investigate her judicial decision.
She also is getting a lot of criticism from the Hispanic community.
Just last week, Lampkin was a hero when she sentenced a brazen gang member to 85 years in prison for the murder of Ricardo Martinez Jr., a former Marine and aspiring Chicago Police officer.
This week -- at least among police officers -- she’s being cast as a villain.
“I used to be married to a policeman. My sister is a police officer. I have relatives who are probation officers. I am actually well aware of what is going on out here,” Lampkin told me during a telephone interview.
“If somebody would just talk to some of the police officers who have been in my courtroom on a regular basis or even the assistant states’ attorneys or public defenders, they would know that I monitor my probations very closely.
“But I am not God and I cannot foresee the future.”
Man tested positive for drugs
It should be noted that Gaston’s alleged accomplice, 21-year-old Kevin Walker, also was on probation.
Cook County Criminal Court Judge Thomas M. Davy gave Walker probation in an armed robbery case.
There’s been less flack about Davy’s decision, apparently because Walker did not violate his probation.
Obviously, if these young men had been in prison instead of on the street, they could not have caused such heartache.
And surely, if both Lampkin and Davy had reason to believe these men would end up killing a Chicago Police officer, they would have locked them up and thrown away the key.
But how could they know?
With respect to Lampkin, when Gaston came before her, it was his first felony offense.
His explanation for the gun violation --that he had a gun for protection -- seemed plausible enough when you consider the street violence many African-American kids grow up with.
A pretrial investigation showed that at the time of the charges, Gaston was a senior at Senn High School.
Given the parade of high school drop- outs in criminal court, that Gaston had gotten as far as his senior year likely led Lampkin to give him a chance to get back on track.
She noted Gaston’s single mother raised him in a stable environment.
The report also concluded that Gaston was not affiliated with a gang, that his mother worked and had lived in the same neighborhood all of his life, and that members of his family were not using drugs.
“Everything said don’t put him in jail,” Lampkin said.
The court’s pre-sentencing report was nine pages long and recommended that Gaston should have regular probation.
But Lampkin went further, requiring that Gaston get a GED, do 40 hours of community service and submit a DNA sample.
After initially stalling, Gaston completed his community service. He also tested positive for marijuana.
Lampkin gave him her standard lecture:
“If you continue to drop negatively, you will have to go to jail for drug rehabilitation,” she said she warned Gaston.
But judges don’t usually put non-drug offenders in jail because of a dirty drop. When Gaston tested positive a second time for marijuana use, Lampkin set the case for July 7.
The killing of a police officer is a tragic and emotional occurrence.
Still, let’s not forget that Lampkin has been a hardworking judge and has handed out some stiff sentences.
She also is well-known for getting out of her bed late at night to sign search warrants so cops can pursue offenders.
As a judge, Lampkin does her best.
But like the rest of us, she doesn’t have a crystal ball.
Copyright 2009 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.