Palatine teen gets case transferred

A Palatine teenager charged with threatening a judge earlier this year during a hearing at the Third Municipal District courthouse in Rolling Meadows will have his case moved to the Maywood courthouse, a Cook County judge ruled Thursday.

Attorneys argued that the charges against De Quante Parker should not be heard in the same courthouse where the alleged victim is a sitting judge.

Transferring the case to another district was necessary to avoid “even the possible appearance of impropriety,” said Cook County Assistant Public Defender Scott Slonim, who represents 18-year-old Parker, who he says has no adult criminal history.

For the case to proceed in the “professional home of the alleged victim would be unfair, unnecessary and inappropriate,” Slonim said.

Parker has been charged with threatening a public official, a class three felony punishable by two to five years in prison. Probation is also available.

According to court records, on April 6, Parker, then 17, faced a Rolling Meadows judge on charges he had been truant from school in violation of a Palatine ordinance. The judge offered to order that Parker perform community service, but Parker asked that he be allowed to pay a fine instead, Slonim wrote in a previous motion to dismiss the case. When the judge hesitated, Parker said “you're (expletive) dead,” after which the judge held Parker in contempt of court, Slonim said. Parker apologized immediately but was ordered held in jail for eight days, Slonim said. Upon his release from jail, he was again taken into custody and charged with threatening a public official, Slonim said. He is free on $10,000 bail.

Parker next appears in a Maywood courtroom on July 21.