A federal judge refused to reconsider releasing community activist Aaron Patterson on bail Friday after he refused to come to court from a South Loop federal jail for a second consecutive day.
U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer questioned how she could be confident Patterson would show up in court if released from custody after he refused to come over from the Metropolitan Correctional Center.
On Thursday, Patterson’s attorney, Demitrus Evans, backed off holding a hearing on Patterson’s claims he was set up by law enforcement on drug and gun charges. But on Friday, Evans told the judge that Patterson wanted to go ahead with the hearing.
Evans said Patterson, pardoned from Death Row in 2003, has refused to come to court because he would be held in a small cell for hours. “This has been unbearable for him,” she said. Prosecutors said Patterson is held in the same bullpen in the federal courthouse like any other prisoner.
