Attorney: Maday's 'not looking to hurt anybody'

Robert Maday, whose escape from custody delayed a hearing where he was expected to get a 13-year sentence, now is likely to face charges carrying much higher penalties - perhaps as great as life in prison, his own attorney acknowledged.

But Park Ridge attorney Anthony Sassan defended his client, saying Maday is not the violent desperado he was made out to be last week when authorities say the shackled, handcuffed man overpowered two Cook County state's attorneys officers and prowled the Northwest and West suburbs for 26 hours.

"You have this history of cases that are classified as violent offenses," Sassan allowed, "but I don't think he's a violent person. He doesn't have violent tendencies. He's not looking to hurt anybody."

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office issued a brisk "no comment" when asked if Maday is a violent individual.

Maday had a long history of robberies committed in Pennsylvania and was about to be sentenced for four aggravated robberies in Schaumburg Thursday when he overpowered the two armed men escorting him to the Rolling Meadows courthouse.

Sassan said the guns in those previous robberies tended to be toys, but Maday was armed with real guns he had taken from the Cook County state's attorney officers when he went on his alleged crime spree last Thursday and Friday. He's accused of committing two carjackings and a bank robbery before being apprehended at midday Friday in West Chicago after an intense manhunt involving at least a dozen police agencies.

With Maday in custody at Chicago's Metropolitan Corrections Center and held without bond, the U.S. Attorney's Office issued a statement Monday saying "no federal charging decisions are imminent as law-enforcement authorities continue their investigation." The Cook County State's Attorney's Office was waiting for complaints to come in to assess charges, even as some police departments were reportedly saying the federal charges could be so substantial they may not even file local complaints.

That and the tangle of legal jurisdictions involved make it almost impossible to say how much additional time Maday could be facing if he is convicted on additional charges. Bank robbery is a federal crime, but Sassan said escaping from the law-enforcement officials could be filed as either state or federal. Maday was being held at the time on federal bank-robbery charges in Kankakee, but was being transported by local law enforcement to the sentencing hearing in Rolling Meadows.

"I really can't comment, because in part I don't know what the U.S. Attorney plans to do, or any prosecuting agencies intend to do," Sassan said, but he added it was possible to imagine a legal scenario that could keep Maday in prison the rest of his life.

Only three years ago, Maday apparently wrote an Internet post stating he would never go back to jail. That was widely misinterpreted by the media last week, Sassan said, in reports "implying he was going to go down with the ship should anybody try to catch him." A careful reading of the whole post, he added, made it clear Maday intended to do anything to remain on the straight and narrow.

"The person who wrote that post, assuming it was him, this occurred at a time after he was released" from a Pennsylvania penitentiary, Sassan said. "He was employed, and he was actually leading a respectable, responsible life. He had a regular job working. And I think, for the first time in a long time for him, he got a taste of what it was like to live a normal life.

Maday lost his job and "was in bad financial straits," Sassan said. "And the wheels just started to come off."

Maday's aunt, Christine McGinn of Wheeling, said it was horrible to hear the news of her nephew unfold last week. But she echoed Sassan, saying as the media reports described Maday as dangerous and violent, she remembered thinking, "Don't worry. He's not going to hurt anyone."

McGinn and her husband, a Buffalo Grove police officer, were Maday's legal guardians for two years while he was in junior high and his parents went through a bitter divorce, she said. Shortly after Maday entered Wheeling High School in the fall of 1985, he went to live with his father in Florida.

For now, Maday's only court appearance is for federal sentencing Oct. 30 on his plea agreement on the bank robberies he committed in the northwest suburbs late last year. Additional charges stemming from last week's escape may or may not be filed before then. Sassan labeled Maday as "a guy who really wanted to straighten out. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way."

Jamie Sotonoff contributed to this story.

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Photo Galleries</h2> <ul class="gallery"> <li><a href="/story/?id=322431">Images from Friday's search for and arrest of fugitive Robert Maday</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=322287">Images from the manhunt Thursday for fugitive Robert Maday </a></li> </ul> <h2>Video</h2> <ul class="video"> <li><a href="/multimedia/?category=9&type=video&item=407">Fugitive Robert Maday apprehended in West Chicago <span class="date">[09/18/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/multimedia/?category=9&type=video&item=406">Scene of Bloomingdale bank robbery <span class="date">[09/18/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/multimedia/?category=9&type=video&item=405">Police manhunt in Arlington Heights <span class="date">[09/17/09]</span></a></li> </ul> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=323110">Attorney: Maday's 'not looking to hurt anybody' <span class="date">[09/22/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=322767">Who is Robert Maday? <span class="date">[09/20/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=322772">How Maday overpowered guards to escape <span class="date">[09/20/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=322771">Roselle woman: 'I figured if I get in the car, I'm dead' <span class="date">[09/20/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=322619">State's attorney's procedures for moving prisoners under fire <span class="date">[09/18/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=322553">Maday made no secret of ID during bank robbery <span class="date">[09/18/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=322534">Witnesses: Chase 'was like a movie' <span class="date">[09/18/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=322501">The who, what and why of the school lockdown <span class="date">[09/18/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=322514">Constable: Suburban cops go from loud music complaint to armed manhunt <span class="date">[09/18/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=322149">Robber who escaped custody still on the loose <span class="date">[09/17/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=322340">'06 Web postings appear to be from Maday <span class="date">[09/17/09]</span> </a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=322229">Apartment complex residents fearful for safety of relatives, friends <span class="date">[09/17/09]</span> </a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=322239">Dist. 214 cancels board meeting, classes at Forest View <span class="date">[09/17/09]</span> </a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=322175">Traffic violations led to arrest of serial robber <span class="date">[09/17/09]</span> </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=263268">Man charged in Huntley bank robbery <span class="date">[01/09/09]</span></a></li> </ul> <h2>Audio</h2> <ul class="audio"> <li><a href="/audio/ahsearch.mp3">Arlington Heights community alert phone call </a></li> <li><a href="/audio/dist54lockdown.mp3">Hoffman Estates Dist. 54 on lockdown </a></li> <li><a href="/audio/dist54alertoff.mp3">Hoffman Estates Dist. 54 ends lockdown </a></li> </ul> <h2>Related documents</h2> <ul class="morePdf"> <li><a href="/pdf/alvarezstatement.pdf">Cook Co. state's attorney suspends Maday investigators</a></li> </ul> <h2>Related links</h2> <ul class="moreWeb"> <li><a href="http://www.justin.tv/clip/e90a116b1242436c">Justin.tv police scanner audio of Robert Maday chase</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>