[Ppnews] Chicago - "Former Panther" gets 30 days for shooting cop in 69

[Political Prisoner News]

Toronto man accused in '69 cop shooting pleads guilty
Fugitive will donate $250,000 to police aid fund, serve 30 days
By Kristen Kridel | Tribune reporter
1:43 PM CST, February 22, 2008
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-joseph-pannell-cop_shot-23feb23,0,4723479.story

A man who shot a Chicago police officer in 1969 and fled to Canada 
where he lived for more than 30 years will serve minimal jail time 
and contribute $250,000 to a police aid fund under a plea agreement 
reached Friday in Cook County Criminal Court.
Longtime fugitive Joseph Pannell, 58, who voluntarily returned to 
Chicago earlier this month after skipping bail in the 1970s, entered 
a guilty plea to a charge of aggravated battery and was sentenced to 
30 days in jail and two years' probation.

He also will contribute $250,000 to the Chicago Police Memorial 
Foundation, which aids children of police officers who have been 
catastrophically injured. Most of the money will go toward 
scholarships, officials said.

Pannell raised the $250,000 from community members in Toronto and 
defense lawyers in Cook County.

Pannell had been charged with attempted murder in connection with the 
shooting of Officer Terrence Knox, who was on patrol near 76th Street 
and Drexel Avenue when he approached Pannell, then 19, and asked why 
he wasn't inside nearby Hirsch High School.

Pannell is accused of having shot Knox several times in the right 
arm, striking a major artery and several nerves. Although Knox still 
has partial use of the arm, the injury eventually caused him to 
retire from the police force and go into private business.

Knox's family came up with the idea of the $250,000 payment to aid 
the families of wounded police officers, Knox told reporters.

For decades, Pannell lived in Canada under the alias of Douglas Gary 
Freeman. He married, started a family and worked as a research 
library assistant near Toronto.

He was arrested in Canada in 2004 after the Chicago police cold-case 
squad, with the help of the FBI and Royal Canadian Mounted Police, 
tracked him through fingerprint records. Until recently, he fought 
extradition to the United States in Canadian courts.

Pannell was allegedly a member of the Black Panther Party in the 
1960s, but Pannell's attorney, Neil Cohen, denied that in court 
earlier this month.

kkridel at tribune.com



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