Bond set for $50K for Highland Park shooting suspect's father charged with felony reckless conduct
WAUKEGAN, Ill. (CBS) -- Bond is set for $50,000 for the father of the alleged gunman in the Highland Park July 4th parade massacre earlier this year.
Lake County State's Attorney's office Eric Rinehart announced Friday that Robert Crimo Jr., the father of suspected Highland Park gunman Robert "Bobby" Crimo III, is charged with seven counts of felony reckless conduct connected to his sponsoring his son's Firearm Owners Identification card application.
Crimo Jr. has been charged with one count of reckless conduct for each of the seven people who were killed in the massacre. The charges were filed on Thursday, Rinehart said.
Each count of felony reckless conduct carries up to three years in prison – but these would likely served concurrently for a total sentence of three years, Rinehart said.
Crimo Jr. turned himself in to Highland Park police on Friday. He will appear for a bond hearing Saturday.
"Parents and guardians are in the best position to decide whether their teenagers should have a weapon they are the first line of defense. In this case, the system failed when Robert Crimo Jr. sponsored his son," Rinehart said. "He knew what he knew, and he signed the form anyway. This was incredibly reckless."
The charges were brought on the grounds that Crimo Jr. "signed, as a sponsor, the parent/legal guardian FOID card affidavit, allowing Robert Crimo III to obtain a FOID card he was not otherwise allowed to obtain, and consenting to Robert Crimo III to possess and acquire firearms and firearm ammunition with said FOID card."
Rinehart said Crimo Jr. "took a reckless and unjustified risk when he decided on December 19, 2019, to sign his son's application for a Firearm Owners Identification card."
In Illinois, 18-, 19-, and 20-year-olds may only obtain FOID cards with parental sponsorship.
"Parents and guardians are in the best position to decide whether their teenager should have a weapon. They are the first line of defense. In this case, that system failed when Robert Crimo Jr. sponsored his son. He knew what he knew, and he signed the form anyway," Rinehart said. "This was criminally reckless and a contributing cause to the bodily harm suffered by the victims on July 4th."
Crimo Jr. sponsored his son's FOID card application just three months after a September 2019 incident in which police were called to the family's home, because the younger Crimo was threatening to "kill everyone" with a collection of knives and swords.
Crimo Jr. had to sign a two-page waiver attesting to his ability to be a sponsor. Prosecutors said Crimo Jr. knew about his son's violent history and should not have signed that waiver.
Highland Park police officers had asked Illinois State Police for a Clear and Present danger designation for Crimo III after the September 2019 incident, but State Police did not grant the designation.
Such as designation could have prevented Crimo from purchasing a firearm. But Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly said there was not sufficient evidence at the time to deem Crimo a Clear and Present Danger.
Rinehart said Friday that despite the fact that State Police approved the FOID application for Crimo III, Crimo Jr. has been charged with reckless conduct for sponsoring his son for a FOID card with the information he himself had about his son's background.
"Illinois State Police do not know more than parents do," Rinehart said.
Crimo III faces 21 counts of first-degree murder - three counts for each person who died in the massacre - along with 48 counts of attempted murder and 48 counts of aggravated battery, one for each surviving victim who was struck by a bullet, bullet fragment, or shrapnel.
Back in July, the suspect's father did not respond to requests for comment from CBS 2; but in a phone interview with ABC News, he said doesn't know the motive behind his son's actions, and defended his decision to sponsor his son's FOID card application.
Attorney George M. Gomez, who represents Crimo Jr., issued the following statement Friday:
"Mr. Robert Crimo Jr. voluntarily surrendered himself to the Highland Park Police Department at 2 pm today. We firmly believe these charges are baseless and unprecedented. On the eve of the statute of limitations for reckless conduct related to the sponsorship of Crimo III's FOID application, the Lake County State's County hastily made a decision to charge my client. This decision should alarm every single parent in the United States of America who according to the Lake County State's Attorney knows exactly what is going on with their 19 year old adult children and can be held criminally liable for actions taken nearly three years later. These charges are absurd and we will fight them every step of the way.
"Mr. Crimo Jr. continues to sympathize and feel terrible for the individuals and families who were injured and lost loved ones this past July 4th, but these charges are politically motivated and a distraction from the real change that needs to happen in this country."
But CBS 2 Legal Analyst Irv Miller said the move to charge the parent of an accused gunman is not out of the ordinary.
"I think this is pretty typical of what would happen in a case like this - anywhere in the country, frankly," Miller said. "There's other cases right now in other states dealing with parents not taking appropriate steps in knowing what their child might hide."
Meanwhile, the newly-announced charges are not offering much closure for some.
"It's not enough," said Kitty Brandtner. "It's not enough."
Brandtner leads March Fourth, a nonprofit formed in the wake of the mass shooting. The organization is pushing for legislation to ban assault weapons on the federal level.
"The charges today, in my opinion, are the bare minimum of justice that these families deserve," Brandtner said, "but the real travesty here is that anyone can buy a weapon of war."
Killed in the Highland Park parade massacre were Katherine Goldstein, 64 of Highland Park; Irina McCarthy, 35, of Highland Park; Kevin McCarthy, 37, of Highland Park; Jacki Sundheim, 63, of Highland Park; Stephen Straus, 88, of Highland Park; Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, 78, of Morelos, Mexico; and Eduardo Uvaldo, 69, of Waukegan.
The mass shooting in Highland Park, and other high-profile shootings this year in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York among others, sparked a renewed push for legislation at the federal level to ban on semi-automatic weapons. Highland Park survivors and doctors who treated victims have even made the trip to Washington, D.C. to urge Congress to act.
Illinois state lawmakers are already in the process of conducting hearings on a potential semi-automatic weapons bill.
Survivors of the Highland Park shooting have also filed multiple lawsuits against a gun manufacturer, distributor, retailer, Crimo and his father, accusing them of responsibility for the massacre. It's a similar strategy to the one taken by the family and survivors of the 2012 Sandy Hook school killings, who earlier this year reached a $73 million settlement with the firearm company that produced the rifles used in that attack.