Dillard | Illinois Department of Corrections

A darling of the Lakeview social service circuit has been sentenced to prison for attacking a CTA bus driver and threatening the driver with a handgun in Wrigleyville one year ago.

Yet, despite being “sentenced” to “eight” years in prison, 24-year-old Rojah Kimble Dillard will be set free in less than one year.

Prosecutors said Dillard attacked the driver and brandished a handgun near the Addison Red Line station shortly after 7 p.m. on February 18, 2016. A passing police vehicle was flagged down, and the cops arrested Dillard after a short pursuit.

State records show Dillard’s sentence and actual time served are quite different

Officers recovered a handgun about 100 yards from where Dillard was arrested, police said.

Dillard this week pleaded guilty to aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and aggravated battery of a transit employee.

He was sentenced to four years in prison for each crime.

But, after Illinois applied its criminal-friendly sentence reduction policies, Dillard was told that he will be released from prison on February 8, 2018, after serving less than one year in prison.

Here’s the Illinois math:

4 years + 4 years = 8 years.

Sentences ordered to serve concurrently = 4 years

Automatic 50% reduction of prison sentence = 2 years

Credit for time spent in jail awaiting plea = 357 days actual prison time

A Long History

Dillard, who listed The Crib youth shelter at 835 W. Addison as his home, has a long history of arrests, threats, and violence in our neighborhood.

He received a five-year sentence after pleading guilty to a 2011 strong arm robbery at Sheffield and School. Of course, he was released after serving less than 2 years.

On January 27 last year, Dillard—using the name Rojah Daleyon—was charged with battery after an armed Center on Halsted security guard told police that Dillard pushed him and tried to take his gun. The case was dropped after the Center failed to show up in court.

Last September, a woman told police that Dillard blocked her path as she walked in 3200 block of N. Halsted and then followed her, saying “I’ll beat your ass. I’ll shoot all y’all. This is my neighborhood.” The complainant failed to show up in court and charges were dropped.

In August 2014, Dillard was arrested after allegedly participating in a large fight at the Night Ministry weekly outreach in the MB Bank parking lot at Belmont and Halsted. That victim also failed to show up in court and charges were dropped.

One month before that, Dillard was charged with battery after allegedly headbutting a 22-year-old client at the Broadway Youth Center. Again, charges were dropped when the victim failed to appear in court.

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