Two Cook County judges’ rulings allowed CTA arson attacker to be free

By Jonathan Bilyk | The Center Square contributor
The Center Square

Following the attack on a CTA train that left a woman badly burned and in critical condition, attention has turned to addressing the question of how her attacker, a mentally ill and violent man who had been arrested scores of times and convicted of numerous prior felonies, was not already behind bars long before the attack.

According to published stories since, particularly from Chicago crime news site, CWB Chicago, the man’s freedom at the time of the attack was largely the result of decisions from two Cook County judges, identified as Judge Teresa Molina-Gonzalez and Judge Ralph Meczyk.

Federal prosecutors in Chicago charged Lawrence Reed, 50, of Chicago, on Nov. 19 with terrorism charges over accusations he attacked a 26-year-old woman on a CTA Blue Line train in a brutal and unprovoked assault.

According to prosecutors, Reed and the woman, who did not know each other, were riding in the same Blue Line train traveling through the subway in downtown Chicago at about 9 p.m. on Nov. 17.

At that time, Reed allegedly attacked the woman from behind, pouring gasoline over her from a bottle, authorities said. He then pursued her through the train and ignited the gasoline, lighting her on fire, authorities said.

Bystanders on the train reportedly provided the woman no assistance, allowing her to continue burning until they arrived at the next stop, where the woman fell onto the train platform. At that time, witnesses rendered aid and called for help.

The woman remains hospitalized in critical condition, with severe burns over half of her body, according to police and published reports.

Reed was then arrested on Nov. 18 by Chicago Police and transferred into federal custody, after he was charged with a “terrorist attack against a mass transportation system.”

“This horrific attack was not just a barbaric assault on an innocent woman riding a train, but an act of terrorism that strikes at the core of our American way of life,” Chicago’s U.S. Attorney Andrew S. Boutros said in a prepared statement. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago, together with our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners, will take immediate and resolute action to bring swift justice to the victim while safeguarding the public as well as the fabric of our society.”

The federal charges come after Cook County judges repeatedly refused to order Reed detained in jail on prior criminal charges. Those criminal acts included a violent assault on a social worker in a psychiatric ward at MacNeal Hospital in suburban Berwyn on Aug. 19, 2025, according to a report published by CWB Chicago. The social worker was left with “very serious injuries,” according to prosecutors quoted in the CWB report.

In that report, CWB cited court transcripts they obtained detailing a court hearing on Aug,. 22 in which prosecutors from the office of Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke asked Judge Molina-Gonzalez to jail Reed while the charges remained pending against him stemming from the attack on the social worker.

During that hearing, CWB reported the Cook County prosecutor on the case told the judge about Reed’s extensive criminal background, which included starting an arson fire at the Thompson Center, among multiple other felonies and misdemeanor convictions.

In all, Reed has been arrested more than 70 times in the past 30 years, with at least 15 convictions.

During the Aug. 22 hearing, a Cook County prosecutor reportedly told Judge Molina-Gonzalez that Reed should be held in jail because “the defendant poses a real and present threat to the safety of, especially this victim, whoever else was working in the hospital that day, and the community as a whole…

“There is nothing here indicating that the defendant was provoked, this was a random act, your Honor, and electronic monitoring would be wholly insufficient. It could not protect the victim or the community from another vicious, random, and spontaneous attack.”

Instead, Molina-Gonzalez ordered Reed released on “electronic home monitoring,” a pre-trial program administered by the Cook County Chief Judge’s office.

Such monitoring, which typically requires defendants to wear ankle monitors that supposedly allow officers to track their movements, has been touted for years by Cook County courts officials, Democratic state lawmakers and criminal justice reform activists, among others, as a better alternative to pre-trial detention in the county jail.

Judges are also required to defer to such jail alternatives as often as possible under the dictates of Illinois’ so-called SAFE-T Act criminal justice reform laws, which prohibited the prior traditional bail-bond system, in the name of racial justice and equity.

Those reforms have been touted and championed by Illinois and Chicago Democrats, particulary in Chicago, including Gov. JB Pritzker, outgoing Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans, former Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, among many others.

In the case of Reed, Judge Molina-Gonzalez reportedly told prosecutors: “I can’t keep everybody in jail because the State’s Attorney wants me to…”

As part of the monitoring order, Molina-Gonzalez agreed to allow Reed to leave his home 40 hours each week, from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekdays, according the CWB report.

Reed returned to court on Sept. 12 for another court appearance in the case, this time before Judge Meczyk.

According to CWB’s report, Meczyk then further modified Reed’s monitoring mandate, allowing him to leave home every day, including up to 5 p.m. on Tuesdays, 8 p.m. on Saturdays, and 3 p.m. on Sundays.

The attack on the woman occurred at 9:25 p.m. on a Monday, more than seven hours after he was supposed to have returned home under the court’s order, and while his movements were supposedly being monitored, according to CWB’s report.

TERESA MOLINA-GONZALEZ

Molina-Gonazalez has been a Cook County judge since 2019. She was first appointed to the bench by the Illinois Supreme Court as an at-large Cook County judge.

She was then elected in 2020, after winning the endorsement of the Cook County Democratic Party. The candidate endorsement and slating process is led by Preckwinkle, who also served as Cook County Democratic Party president.

According to campaign finance records, Molina-Gonzalez has donated more than $46,000 to the Cook County Democratic Party since 2019. According to state disclosure records, she “loaned” much of the money to her judicial campaign committee, which then, in turn, transferred the money to the Cook County Democrats.

According to those records, Molina-Gonzalez’s campaign committee owes her more than $57,000 for those “loans,” which account for the overwhelming bulk of her campaign funding.

At the time of her appointment, her installation on the bench was touted in published reports as historic, as it marked the first such judgeship secured by a Puerto Rican in Cook County history.

In a post published by the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts, spotlighting Molina-Gonzalez’ judgeship as part of a celebration of “Hispanic Heritage Month,” Molina-Gonzalez said she chose to pursue law and become a judge because:

“I liked criminal justice because I found it way less confusing than most subjects. I was always interested in things being fair and felt that people should be held accountable for their actions. I knew many people that were the victims of crimes and wanted to be a voice for those who needed to be heard.”

Before becoming a judge, Molina-Gonzalez worked in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office from 2009-2016 in the felony trial division. Her work there included prosecuting 27 felony jury trials, according to releases at the time of her appointment to the bench.

Molina-Gonzalez next worked in the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation from 2016 to 2019, where she reportedly led a team responsible for prosecuting “violations of licensing laws in real estate, appraisals, home inspections, auctions, and community association managers.”

RALPH MECZYK

Meczyk has been an even more recent addition to the Cook County bench.

He was appointed to the bench in the 13th Judicial Subcircuit in Cook County’s far northwest suburbs in February 2024 by the Illinois Supreme Court.

Meczyk then ran for and won election to the 13th Subcircuit judgeship in November 2024. Meczyk ran as a Democrat, but was not officially slated or endorsed by the Cook County Democratic Party.

According to published reports, Meczyk came to the bench late in his career, which began in 1977. He worked as an assistant public defender until 1982. He then worked from 1982-2024 in as a solo practitioner as a defense attorney.

Meczyk’s work as an attorney and his conduct has generated headlines.

Among his clients, for instance, was Drew Peterson, the former Bolingbrook police officer convicted in 2012 of murdering his third wife, Stacy Peterson.

In 2004, Meczyk lost at the U.S. Supreme Court, as he argued on behalf of a man convicted of drug trafficking that using police dogs to sniff for drugs during traffic stops was an unconstitutional violation of the Fourth Amendment prohibitions on warrantless searches. In that decision, known as Illinois v Caballes, the high court ruled 6-2 to overturn a ruling from the Illinois Supreme Court in favor of Meczyk’s client.

And in 1987, Meczyk pleaded guilty to federal charges of filing a false tax return as part of Operation Greylord, a federal investigation into corruption within Cook County’s courts. Meczyk reportedly blamed the failure to report $35,000 in income on “an incredibly horrible bookkeeping system.” He maintained his law license after the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission found the tax reporting failures should be chalked up to “a lack of business experience, poor judgment, and negligence,” and not an intent to defraud the federal government.

Meczyk was pardoned in 2000 by former President Bill Clinton.

In a report about Meczyk’s candidacy in 2024 published by Injustice Watch, Meczyk reportedly said:

“I am the son of Holocaust survivors and I was raised to appreciate the need to hold government and elected officials accountable. It is critical to remember as judges we serve the people. I will be aware of this every day and every time I act as a judge. Serving as a judge is an incredible amount of responsibility and power and I will never take it lightly.”

Both Meczyk and Molina-Gonzalez are serving six-year terms as judges on the Cook County bench.

Molina-Gonzalez will next go before voters in 2026 and Meczyk in 2030 during so-called “retention” election. In those elections, voters will be asked if they wish to “retain” those judges, among other incumbent judges on the ballot.

Voters will be asked to vote “yes” or “no.”

If judges fail to secure 60% “yes” votes, they would be removed from the bench.