Dashonn Maggette
A Cook County judge has denied Dashonn Maggette, a man wrongfully convicted, a new trial. Maggette is scheduled to be sentenced on October 24, over a year after being convicted of being an armed habitual criminal and battery of a police officer.
In an August 22 hearing, Judge Nicholas Kantas refused to consider an affidavit from Oscar Morales, the jury foreman, who told the Chicago Crusader that Maggette did not receive a fair trial in 2023, calling the proceedings a cover-up.
During the hearing, prosecutors said they will not retry Maggette on three serious charges that had deadlocked the jury: attempted murder, aggravated battery with a firearm, and aggravated discharge of a firearm.
Maggette, with a criminal record, now faces life in prison. The armed habitual criminal charge is a Class X felony, carrying a sentence of up to 30 years. Maggette has already served seven years in custody at Cook County Jail.
Maggette has been incarcerated since 2017 after a scuffle with Chicago police officers Patrick Forbes and Michael Hudson in the Chatham neighborhood. According to official police reports, Maggette allegedly had a gun and shot Officer Hudson in the hand. However, no fingerprints were lifted from the gun, and a ballistics report that suggested Maggette did not possess a weapon was sealed during the trial and remains inaccessible to the media.
On June 29, Maggette was convicted following a week-long trial, which Foreman Morales described as one-sided. Judge Lawrence Flood repeatedly overruled Maggette’s public defender, Karin Talwar, prompting Morales to say it became a “running joke among jurors.” Only one Black juror was seated among the 12-member jury.
Following Crusader’s coverage of the case, Judge Flood retired a month after the trial, and Judge Kantas was assigned to the case.
In her motion for a new trial, Talwar argued that Flood demonstrated “hostility and prejudice against Maggette and the defense counsel when it sustained objections made by the State when they did not have a legal basis.”
During the trial, Flood sided with prosecutors when they objected to audio from a cellphone video taken by a bystander, which captured the moments following the altercation outside an apartment building.
Talwar’s motion asserted that the audio was critical to the defense’s case, showing that Officer Forbes continued using excessive force on Maggette, even after he was injured. Witnesses testified that Forbes was pointing his gun at Maggette, who was trying to escape with his back turned.
“The court refused to allow defense counsel to impeach Officers Forbes and Hudson by using prior statements they made to IPRA/COPA investigators, which exhibited clear prejudice against Mr. Maggette and favoritism toward the State and the officers,” Talwar wrote.
She also highlighted what she called one of Judge Flood’s “most egregious examples” of bias—allowing hearsay testimony from Detective Koch, who repeated questionable statements made by Officer Forbes.
Just days after the trial, the Crusader published an article featuring jury foreman Morales, then 20 years old, who described the trial as a “cover-up” after reading several of the Crusader’s reports on the case. Morales alleged that Judge Flood pressured him and other jurors into reaching a verdict after two days of deliberation.
In an interview with Talwar and investigator Marisa Figueroa, Morales confirmed his statements from the article and affirmed his stance.
Morales asked the Crusader to keep him updated on the case. Upon hearing that Judge Kantas had denied Maggette a new trial, he said, “I’m sad and disappointed with the decision.”