Corey Cottrell, 39 years old, was riding his motorcycle on Main Street, in Bloomington, Illinois, on 22 June 2019. He was headed to see his mother at church.
Jose Rodriquez, a 27-year-old, Honduran illegal alien was driving a van owned by his employer east on Macarthur Boulevard, when he ran a red light and killed Cottrell, leaving Cottrell’s two daughters (11 and 14) fatherless.
Rodriquez not only killed Cottrell — enroute to see his mother at church, he ran over him as he fled the scene of the accident. Rodriquez ran into Cottrell; Rodriquez ran over Cottrell as he lay dying on the pavement, Rodriquez fled the scene of the accident.
Beer cans were found in the van.
Rodriquez was employed by GR Framing Construction who also owned the van. Rodriquez did not hold a valid driver’s license at the time of the accident and GR Framing Construction knew this fact.
This is a sad and unnecessary tale.
Rodriquez was in the country illegally, but Bloomington is a sanctuary city and Illinois is a sanctuary state. That makes the tragedy even worse as it could have been prevented.
Allow me to plumb the depths of the subject:
1. Jose Rodriquez was in the country illegally, was identified by ICE as an illegal fugitive, and was ordered to be twice removed from the country — deported — back in both 2013 and 2014, but because Illinois is a sanctuary state, an ICE detainer order was not honored and Illinois assisted Rodriquez in avoiding deportation.
2. Rodriquez turned himself into police the next day — too late to do a toxicology test. His bail was set at $1,000,000.
3. No sooner was that bail set than McLean County Judge Scott Drazewski inexplicably lowered Rodriquez’s bail from $1,000,000 to $100,000. “Inexplicable” is a fancy word for WTF?
Can anyone explain this action to me?
4. At $100,000 bail, Rodriquez will be able to bond out and escape custody. Local law enforcement will not cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to alert them as to when they will release Rodriquez from custody so that ICE could deport him.
5. It is highly unlikely that Rodriquez will return to McLean County to stand trial thereby assisting Rodriquez in evading both deportation and criminal liability. Rodriquez will not even have any restriction on his ability to flee the state of Illinois.
6. Illinois is home to 400,000 of the Nation’s 1.7MM criminal illegal aliens who have been ordered to be deported by final deportation orders or who have pending final deportation orders. Rodriquez had been issued both an “expedited” deportation order in 2013, and a “final” deportation order by an immigration judge after a trial in 2014. Rodriquez had received the full measure of legal due process.
7. Despite these final deportation actions and orders, the sanctuary state of Illinois will not cooperate with ICE even after Rodriquez killed an Illinois citizen.
All of this has to be viewed through the lens that Governor Pritzker just recently signed a new Illinois law that prohibits local law enforcement from assisting ICE in any manner as it relates to the identification or detention of criminal illegal aliens, bans any ICE Detention Centers within the entire State of Illinois, and provides illegal aliens public assistance in attending Illinois public colleges.
The bottom line is this:
1. Corey Cottrell, a citizen of Illinois, is dead. His two daughters are fatherless.
2. Jose Rodriquez will never stand trial for the death of Corey Cottrell because a judge reduced his bail from $1,000,000 to $100,000.
3. Jose Rodriquez should not have been in the country.
4. The State of Illinois’ sanctuary city law will allow Jose Rodriquez to flee Illinois and relocate.
5. The State of Illinois will use its police powers to shield the perpetrator of Cottrell’s death and will do nothing to visit justice upon Cottrell’s killer.
6. There is not a damn thing you can do about this.
This is Illinois. This is sanctuary states. This is nuts.
But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car. RIP, Corey Cottrell.
