UChicago students speak on behalf of former classmate recovered from COVID-19 symptoms released on bond from Cook County Jail
Charles Thomas (right) with his father Wendell (left). Photo courtesy of The Chicago Maroon
Members of the University of Chicago community gathered virtually Thursday evening to celebrate and honor one of their own, former UChicago student Charles “Soji” Thomas, who was released from Cook County Jail after a bond hearing on Wednesday, April 15. Former classmates, friends, and family members came together on Thursday, April 16, Thomas’ birthday, on a Zoom call to show their support for him while also celebrating his release from Cook County Jail. Thomas himself spoke of his joy at being home after nearly two years.
Thomas, who was set to graduate from UChicago with a degree in history back in 2018, was shot by university police while experiencing a public manic episode during a mental health crisis. This event resulted in eight felony charges for Thomas, including aggravated assault of an officer and damage to public property, and a mandatory house arrest order while he awaited trial, according to a March Chicago Sun-Times article. Another mental health crisis this past October caused Thomas to break his house arrest order and go missing for two weeks, an action that, once found safe, led to him being detained at Cook County Jail where he began suffering from coronavirus symptoms.
Now, nearly two years after the night that sent shockwaves through the University of Chicago community, Thomas is home and reflecting on a “whirlwind” twenty-four hours.
“Everything happened yesterday,” Thomas said. “I was up at 4:00 a.m. yesterday waiting to call someone just to find out how the bond hearing went. And I found out hours after [that I was granted bond]. I was in disbelief. Like I thought it was a mistake they’d made. I spent the rest of the day not thinking it was going to happen.”
Thomas, who is currently on electronic monitoring following his release, previously had a bond hearing at the beginning of the month in which he was deemed ineligible for release by Judge Neera Walsh who, according to a GoFundMe page run by Thomas’ family, believed he was “a danger to himself” and would be safer in jail. A second bond request was also denied.
One of Thomas’ friends Eleanor Carpenter was also instrumental in helping plead his case. Carpenter, who met Thomas when they both joined the UChicago crew team in 2014, helped organize friends, family, coworkers, teachers, supervisors, classmates and others to write letters addressed to Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx that could speak to Thomas’ character. She also participated a meeting with #CareNotCops and Kim Foxx on Wednesday that also helped facilitate Thomas’ release.
During the livestream, Carpenter read the letter she wrote to Foxx on behalf of Thomas. In it, she detailed some of the hardships Thomas has experienced throughout his recovery. “I spent time with Charles in the throws of his delusions and witnessed his gradual stabilization through careful medication and therapy,” she said. “I felt the bullet lodged in his shoulder. I celebrated his 22nd birthday with him in the visitation room of the psychiatric ward. I visited him weekly as he adjusted to life under electronic monitoring. I saw firsthand how haphazard and disruptive that system is.”
While Thomas awaits trial, he’ll have to remain in his father Wendell Thomas’ North Side home where he has since recovered from his coronavirus symptoms. Thomas is required to remain there while he awaits trial per the terms of his electronic monitoring. Despite being unable to leave home for the foreseeable future, Thomas is still looking on the bright side of his situation and reflecting on what being out of jail really means for him. He also looked back on how coronavirus changed standard operations at Cook County Jail.
“I had a banana [and I haven't had a banana in so long,” Thomas said. “They started giving us fruit...in jail, you don’t get fruit and they, like…I think they were trying to mollify us. When coronavirus started getting really bad and everyone started getting sick, they started feeding us a little better. Like, once they gave us waffles which they never [usually] did. And you just don’t get fruit, maybe once in a while only because of coronavirus we got apples. I really liked the apples.”
A call-in script provided to supporters of Thomas on the Students Working Against Prison (SWAP) Facebook page for calling Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx prior to his release from jail. Courtesy of SWAP.
#CareNotCops, who helped Thomas get released, is a campaign run by student activist organizations Students Working Against Prison (SWAP) and UChicago United that have both been working on Thomas’ case since he was first arrested back in 2018. In Thursday's livestream, Thomas himself asserted how instrumental the meeting with Kim Foxx and #CareNotCops was released from Cook County Jail. According to Thomas, their work made this “the best birthday” he’s had.
“It was solely the works of #CareNotCops that actually got me help,” Thomas said. “Like that is who I credit [my release] to completely. The team at #CareNotCops, my parents, Eleanor, everybody who has just done so much work…’cause if they hadn’t secured the meeting with Kim Foxx, it never would have just started this snowball effect of events that led to another bond hearing. A third bond hearing [because] I got denied bond twice.”
The group also marked the location where Thomas was originally shot, 53rd S. Kimbark, with signs advocating for his release from jail prior to news of release spread. Members of the group put up signs drawing attention to Thomas’ case. “In 2018, UCP shot our friend. Two years later he is still in jail. #FreeCharles,” the signs read.
“We put this up to kind of raise awareness about the situation and the fact that, at the time, Charles was still in jail,” a member of the campaign and student, Roma Linarews, said in Thursday’s livestream. “For Charles’ birthday we wanted to raise awareness of the fact that he would have still been in jail, two years after the event occured, awaiting bond, on his birthday, in the midst of all this craziness,” Linares said. “We just wanted to put [the signs up] as a reminder that he suffered an injustice at the hands of the University and UChicago police department, and despite this, we wanted his name to be remembered.”
#CareNotCops also believed the timing of Thomas’ release was especially crucial in protecting his life, as Cook County Jail continues to experience widespread positive coronavirus cases among both inmates and staff.
“There are near countless people in Cook County Jail still suffering and getting sick and having to endure this illness alone, in jail,” Linares said. “Like has been said many times throughout this livestream, the fight isn’t over.”
According to the New York Times, Cook County Jail in Chicago is currently one of the top sites for clustered COVID-19 cases in the country. Since the pandemic started, three Cook County inmates have died of the virus, the latest being 42-year-old Nicholas Lee, whose coronavirus symptoms lead to him experiencing cardiac arrest which proved to be fatal, the sheriff’s office says.
“Prisons are absolutely no place for a pandemic,” said Mia Zimmer, a supporter of Thomas’ who participated in the livestream. “All of this craziness with coronavirus is really showing that. The prison system is not built to care for people. It’s built to imprison and trap people and make release as hard as possible.”
Linares also called on supporters of Thomas to contact UChicago President Zimmer to call on him to recognize the “severity” and “injustice” of the situation.”
#CareNotCops has criticized the university’s handling of Thomas’ case in the past. In a Letter to the Editor to the Chicago Maroon, UChicago’s independent student-run newspaper, #CareNotCops wrote about the situation, saying the school failed him and other students with its lax attitude toward mental health issues in favor of maximizing academic achievement. On Thursday, Kathy Thomas, Charles Thomas’ mother also shared her thoughts, and urged supporters of her son to continue fighting against the University of Chicago.
“I don’t want another student or another parent to have to go through what we have gone through, you know, with a child who’s never been in trouble before, had a mental health issue, went to the university for help and was not helped. And they have a teaching hospital there. How easy would it have been to say ‘oh, this is cool; slide him in [for an appointment].’”
Thomas said the family paid for her son to receive health insurance from the University of Chicago and should have been able to get the help needed to address his mental health, something that didn’t end up happening.
Thomas says he will continue to fight the eight felony charges against him. He and his family have also filed a lawsuit against the University of Chicago, University of Chicago Police Department and Officer Nicolas Twardak, according to a March Chicago Sun-Times article, due to alleged negligence and misconduct.
“The fight isn’t over. I’m still facing charges,” Thomas said. “I still have to work on beating those charges and actually drag some sort of justice out of what’s happened. There’s still a lot to do so this certainly isn’t the time to rest on anyone’s laurels but at the same time it’s a time of celebration.”
Note: The Real Chi reached out to #CareNotCops regarding further details regarding Thomas’ recovery from coronavirus symptoms. Currently, the Thomas family is choosing to not do interviews with the press, which The Real Chi and Free Spirit Media acknowledge and respect.