Officers allege Bridgeforth, of Chicago, requested and received nude videos from a juvenile and that he had sexual contact with the victim, according to the statement.

Bridgeforth was taken into custody March 4 and ordered to Cook County Jail custody March 6 following his initial court appearance at the Markham courthouse.

Police said they received a tip about the allegations Feb. 26 from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Bridgeforth contacted the victim online and convinced her to perform sexual acts for money, prosecutors said. Eventually this led to them meeting up where he forcibly sexually assaulted her, they said.

Prosecutors argued Bridgeforth be held in custody because admonishing him not to engage in such actions would not be adequate protection because he preys on minors.

Bridgeforth was also arrested in 2023 by the sherrif’s police for possession of child pornography. These charges were scheduled to be heard in a bench trial Thursday, but the trial was rescheduled when Bridgeforth was arrested for the new charges.

Bridgeforth was on a $500,000 bond for the 2023 charges at the time of the recent arrest.

Bridgeforth was terminated from the Dixmoor Police Department in 2022 and previously worked for the Robbins Police Department in 2019.

awright@chicagotribune.com

The Justice Department wants a broad ruling that would let it move more quickly to end legal protections for migrants from multiple countries, including Haiti and Syria, according to a letter sent to the high court on Monday.

Feds violated immigration court order, wrongly deported hundreds, court filing alleges

The Trump administration argues that the federal government has the authority to end temporary protected status as it sees fit, without intervention from the courts.

But lower courts have disagreed, including a judge in Washington D.C. that found “hostility to nonwhite immigrants” likely played a role in the decision to end protections for Haitians. An appeals court upheld the decision.

The Supreme Court, though, has sided with the Trump administration on the issue before, allowing the termination of protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans to proceed amid litigation. It was part of a series of wins for Trump on the Supreme Court’s short-term emergency docket that have allowed him to move ahead with key parts of his agenda.

Now the administration is asking for a ruling finding that courts can’t question the Department of Homeland Security moves that come amid a wider mass deportation effort.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer said the lower-court judges have shown “persistent disregard” for the court’s earlier emergency-docket decisions, part of a cycle that looks “likely to repeat again and again unless and until this Court steps in.”

He appealed a ruling keeping protections for Syrian immigrants last month, and said Monday he plans to appeal another decision affecting about 350,000 Haitians.

A group of more than 175 former judges has also weighed in, arguing that emergency-docket rulings are not settled law and the court should allow the normal appeals process to play out.

The protections for Haitians were first granted in 2010 after a catastrophic earthquake and has been extended multiple times. The country is still racked by gang violence that has displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

Homeland Security says that conditions have improved and denied racial animus played a role. Attorneys for the Haitian migrants, though, say “people will almost certainly die” if the Trump administration ends the program.

Temporary protected status can be granted by the Homeland Security secretary if conditions in home countries are deemed unsafe for return due to a natural disaster, political instability or other dangers. It is granted in 18-month increments and does not provide a legal pathway to citizenship.

The Department of Homeland Security has also terminated protections for about 600,000 Venezuelans, 6,100 Syrians, 60,000 people from Honduras, Nicaragua and Nepal, more than 160,000 Ukrainians and thousands of people from Afghanistan and Cameroon.

The work will cover Sixth Street between Garfield Street and County Line Road and will separate the combined sewer system in accordance with the village’s Stormwater Master Plan. Village President Greg Hart said the work should improve drainage and reduce localized flooding.

“It will also replace the more than 80-year-old water main and sanitary sewer infrastructure and fully reconstruct the roadway pavement,” he said, adding that the project addresses infrastructure that is “well beyond its useful life.”

Hart said the village secured a $1.092 million federal Community Project Funding grant, with the help of  Congressman Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, to help offset costs related to the underground utility portion of the project.

“That funding supports separation of the combined sewer system, installation of new storm sewers, and replacement and upgrading of aging water main and sanitary sewer infrastructure, in accordance with our Stormwater Master Plan,” he said.

The section of Sixth Street to be improved currently is constructed in brick. Whether that remains when the project is completed remains to be determined.

“We are working with residents on Sixth Street to determine project details, including the materials that will ultimately be used,” Hart said. “More information will be shared once we have final grant requirements and have completed further dialogue with Sixth Street residents.”

The project is anticipated to be bid in fall 2026, with construction taking place in 2027, with the timing being dependent on the distribution of federal grant funds,

“The last major utility work on this corridor dates back more than 80 years,” Hart said. “While routine maintenance has been performed over time to maintain drivability, there has not been a full reconstruction of this magnitude in modern history. Portions of the street surface date back as far as 1891.”

Hart said the village will work to maintain access for local traffic and driveways as much as possible, while work is being done.

“However, given the scale of the project, temporary street closures and construction staging impacts should be expected during active construction,” he said. “Specific traffic control plans will be finalized closer to the start of work.”

Chuck Fieldman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press. 

Anthropic filed two separate lawsuits Monday, one in California federal court and another in the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., each challenging different aspects of the Pentagon’s actions against the company.

The Pentagon last week formally designated the San Francisco tech company a supply chain risk after an unusually public dispute over how its AI chatbot Claude could be used in warfare.

Elizabeth Shackelford: The Pentagon’s fight with Anthropic is about unchecked power

“These actions are unprecedented and unlawful,” Anthropic’s lawsuit says. “The Constitution does not allow the government to wield its enormous power to punish a company for its protected speech. No federal statute authorizes the actions taken here. Anthropic turns to the judiciary as a last resort to vindicate its rights and halt the Executive’s unlawful campaign of retaliation.”

The Defense Department declined to comment Monday, citing a policy of not commenting on matters in litigation.

Anthropic said it sought to restrict its technology from being used for two high-level usages: mass surveillance of Americans and fully autonomous weapons. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other officials publicly insisted the company must accept “all lawful uses” of Claude and threatened punishment if Anthropic did not comply.

Designating the company a supply chain risk cuts off Anthropic’s defense work using an authority that was designed to prevent foreign adversaries from harming national security systems. It was the first time the federal government is known to have used the designation against a U.S. company.

President Donald Trump also said he would order federal agencies to stop using Claude, though he gave the Pentagon six months to phase out a product that’s deeply embedded in classified military systems, including those used in the Iran war.

Anthropic’s lawsuit also names other federal agencies, including the departments of Treasury and State, after officials ordered employees to stop using Anthropic’s services.

Even as it fights the Pentagon’s actions, Anthropic has sought to convince businesses and other government agencies that the Trump administration’s penalty is a narrow one that only affects military contractors when they are using Claude in work for the Department of Defense.

Making that distinction clear is crucial for the privately held Anthropic because most of its projected $14 billion in revenue this year comes from businesses and government agencies that are using Claude for computer coding and other tasks. More than 500 customers are paying Anthropic at least $1 million annually for Claude, according to a recent investment announcement valued the company at $380 billion.

Anthropic said in a statement Monday that “seeking judicial review does not change our longstanding commitment to harnessing AI to protect our national security, but this is a necessary step to protect our business, our customers, and our partners.”

No charges had yet been brought against the men, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, but federal prosecutors and police planned a news conference later in the day. In the meantime, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a morning news conference that the explosives episode “is being investigated as an act of ISIS-inspired terrorism,” using an acronym for the Islamic State group.

Meanwhile, police searched a home in northeastern Pennsylvania’s Middletown Township, and a separate federal investigation was underway in nearby Newtown, local police said. Both inquiries were related to the incident outside New York’s mayoral residence, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican, wrote in a social media post Sunday.

The homemade devices, which did not explode, were hurled Saturday during raucous counterprotests against an anti-Islamic demonstration led by Jake Lang, a far-right activist and critic of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat and the first Muslim to hold the office. Mamdani and his wife weren’t at the house, called Gracie Mansion, at the time.

Speaking outside the residence Monday morning, Mamdani said Balat and Kayumi “traveled from Pennsylvania and attempted to bring violence to New York City.”

It wasn’t immediately clear whether 18-year-old Balat or 19-year-old Kayumi have attorneys who can speak to the accusations. Attempts to reach their families were not immediately successful.

Tisch said there are no indications that the men’s alleged activities were connected to the ongoing war in Iran. She declined to say more about why authorities believe the suspects were motivated by the Islamic State group, a Sunni extremist group. Iran’s population is almost entirely Shiite, the other main religious community within Islam.

While Mamdani and Tisch briefed reporters Monday, Lang heckled from outside the Gracie Mansion gates.

Lang’s sparsely attended protest Saturday drew a far larger group of counterdemonstrators, including one person who police say tossed a smoking object containing nuts, bolts, screws and a “hobby fuse” into the crowd.

The device extinguished itself steps from police officers, Tisch noted. The same person who threw it then dropped a second device that did not appear to ignite, the commissioner said.

The scene had grown chaotic even before the devices were thrown. Police said one person involved in the anti-Islam protest, Ian McGinnis, 21, was arrested after pepper-spraying counterprotesters. McGinnis, of Philadelphia, was released without bond after pleading not guilty Sunday to assault and aggravated harassment in a New York court, records show. A message seeking comment was left Monday for his attorney.

Three others were taken into custody but were released without charges.

After the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Lang was charged with assaulting an officer with a baseball bat, civil disorder and other crimes. He was later freed from prison as part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping act of clemency. Lang recently announced that he is running for U.S. Senate in Florida.

Earlier this year, he organized a rally in Minneapolis in support of Trump’s immigration crackdown, drawing an angry crowd of counterprotesters who quickly chased him away.

Judge Derek Ewanic rendered his verdict after a two-day bench trial last week.

The charges stemmed from March 2024 when Traynere, a Bolingbrook Democrat, went into the email of board member Judy Ogalla, a Monee Republican, who was the County Board chair at the time.

Traynere testified last week she was testing a rumor she heard at the county office building the day before that all board members had the same email password when they were issued new computers.

During the trial, Ogalla testified she never authorized Traynere to enter her email account.

Traynere said she never expected Ogalla’s email to open when she entered her own password. She testified she closed the email after about 10 seconds and contacted the county’s Information Technology Department and the county executive to alert them to a security vulnerability. Later that day, Traynere called Ogalla to inform her about the incident.

After the verdict Monday, Traynere said she didn’t look at anything in Ogalla’s email when she opened it.

“I told Judy at the time this was not me trying to do anything malicious to her,” Traynere said.

Traynere’s attorneys contend she was “sounding the alarm” that all board members had the same email password.

William Elward, a special prosecutor in the case, argued that Traynere instead was “tripping an alarm.”

Elward said Traynere was using the email to gain a political advantage and learn what members of the opposing party were thinking. He argued that Traynere is sophisticated and intelligent but got caught sneaking around in someone else’s inbox.

Ewanic said he sided with the prosecution that Traynere tripped the alarm. He said there are 21 other board members, and Traynere accessed a rival party member’s inbox.

Ewanic likened the alarm to a “dumpster fire” in the county that was small and contained.

“I think that it’s good the judge looked at all the facts and made his decision based on the facts of the case,” Ogalla said Monday. “I know she intentionally (accessed the email), which is why I filed the police report.”

Traynere testified last week she believed she had logged out of Ogalla’s account and was opening her own email when she forwarded an email from County Board member Steve Balich, a Homer Glen Republican.

In finding her not guilty of this count, Ewanic said he believed that Traynere thought she was in her own account when she forwarded that email.

Colin “CJ” Haney, Traynere’s attorney, said he plans to file a motion for a new trial. Sentencing is set for April 7.

Traynere said after the verdict that she is a “go-getter” and she gets things done. When she heard the rumor about the passwords, she sprung into action, she said.

“It was a bad judgement on my part,” Traynere said.

She said she was busy in her job as an administrator at DuPage Township and as a County Board member, and said she acted too quickly without thinking it through. She said it would have been better had she waited instead of testing the theory about the same passwords herself.

“I did sound the alarm when I sent the email to IT,” Traynere said. “This violates every IT rule there is.”

Traynere said she believes politics played a role in the judge’s decision, noting he is a Republican.

She said she is not a political rival of Ogalla’s since they are from two different districts and cannot run against one another in elections. Rather, they are two board members with differing viewpoints, Traynere said.

Traynere said she plans to ask for an audit of the county’s information technology system.

April 7 will also be the next court date for a pending traffic ticket.

Elward last year refiled a case that alleges Traynere failed to yield to a pedestrian crossing the roadway in March 2025. The original traffic case was dismissed last May after a complaining witness did not show up to court, records show.

Michelle Mullins is a freelance reporter.

Temperatures Monday afternoon will reach the low 70s, according to Kevin Doom, a National Weather Service meteorologist. Expect gusts of wind 20 to 25 miles per hour that will cool the air a bit, Doom said, but added that Monday seems “pretty nice” overall.

Doom said there’s a small chance some areas of the metro — mainly Northwest Indiana — may see showers pop up Monday, but Chicago will likely remain storm-free.

Tuesday is a different story. Doom said those in the metro area should be prepared for severe weather. Tornadoes are possible in the afternoon and evening, and large hail and strong winds may come in the evening and stay overnight.

“Should a strong or severe storm be headed into your area, you kind of know the drill,” Doom said. “Head inside, and then, if there’s a tornado threat, obviously take shelter if you need to.”

The storms will be scattered, according to Doom, mostly near a warm front that is expected to cover the southern portion of the area. The threat of tornadoes lies mainly along I-80 — give or take some tens of miles — near where the warm front will set up, Doom said.

On Tuesday, Chicago will be just north of the warm front, Doom said, so temperatures in the city will drop back into the 50s. The southern suburbs may see highs in the 70s, reaching toward 80 degrees.

Doom said it’s important to be aware of Tuesday’s weather because even though storms will scattered, they’ll certainly be in the area, and windstorms could occur in late evening and overnight as Chicago’s cold front pushes through.

“Keep a loose eye on the things,” Doom said. “Maybe turn the news on every once in a while.”

At approximately 11:34 p.m. on Friday, officers from the St. Charles Police Department were dispatched to the area of East Main Street and Hunt Club Drive in St. Charles after a man was reported to be running in and out of the roadway toward vehicles, according to a press release from the department.

Arriving officers were immediately met by Licurgo Diazsandi, 23, homeless, the release stated. Officers initially attempted to speak with Diazsandi, however, police said he quickly brandished a knife and charged at the responding officers, according to the release.

One of the officers deployed a less-than-lethal Taser device on Diazsandi and struck him, while another fired his service weapon, but did not hit him, the release said.

Diazsandi was subsequently subdued and taken into custody by the officers, police said. Diazsandi was taken to Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital in Geneva, and later released into police custody, according to officials. One of the involved officers was also taken to another nearby hospital, per protocol, the release said.

The Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office approved several charges against Diazsandi, including attempted murder, armed violence, attempt to disarm a peace officer, aggravated assault to a peace officer with a weapon, criminal damage to government property and resisting a police officer, according to the release.

Diazsandi was transported to the Kane County Jail for a conditions/detention hearing, where he is currently being held, the release on Saturday said.

Anyone who might have information regarding the incident is asked to contact the St. Charles Police Department at 630-377-4435.

A 19-year-old man and a 20-year-old man were inside a parked vehicle at around 12:44 a.m. in the 5000 block of South Justine Street when a dark-colored sedan approached. Two men exited the sedan and fired shots at the victims before driving away, according to police.

The 20-year-old was shot in the back. Firefighters treated him on the scene before he was transferred to UChicago Medicine, where he was later pronounced dead. The 19-year-old was pronounced on the scene from multiple gunshot wounds to the body, police said.