Crime & Safety
Wrestler Shot After Entering Cop’s Wheaton-Area Home Gets Probation
The man has already spent over eighteen months in prison for entering a police officer's home while intoxicated and being shot by the homeowner.
A former Harper College wrestler who has spent over a year and a half in jail for drunkenly entering the Wheaton-area house of a Wood Dale police officer—who shot the student in the stomach—has been sentenced to probation, the Daily Herald reports.
According to the paper, though prosecutors wanted a three-year sentence, Kerim Ramirez, 21, was sentenced to two years of probation, including regular drug testing, and a six-month jail term waived for time already served; Ramirez has apologized and said he hopes to wrestle again as he rehabilitates from being shot.
“Alcohol and you just don’t mix,” the Chicago Tribune quoted DuPage County Judge George Bakalis telling Ramirez. “But in my mind, this was not a home invasion.”
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Even so, the Herald said, the judge said that Sgt. Michael Peters was justified—to defend his wife and four-year-old son—in shooting Ramirez, who previously stood trial in April but could not be convicted after conflicting testimony.
Ramirez’s attorney Gal Pissetzky told the Herald that his client is "extremely remorseful" and "committed" to sobriety.
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Read more at the Chicago Tribune and Daily Herald websites.
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