Posted on 01/24/2004 7:57:48 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
CHICAGO (AP) - Chicago police arrested a former death row inmate, one of four pardoned last year by the governor, after the man allegedly quarreled with a pastor who told him to stop electioneering outside a soup kitchen. Aaron Patterson's arrest on misdemeanor charges Friday came only hours after the Chicago Board of Elections ruled that his name could appear on the March 16 Democratic primary ballot as a candidate for the state House of Representatives. According to police, Patterson was standing outside Englewood Cares Outreach Ministries, urging bystanders to register to vote, and refused to leave when the pastor asked him to. Patterson was arrested on misdemeanor counts of simple assault and impersonating a government official and was released on $100 bail, police said. Officers said Patterson had shouted that he was a state official, which he is not. Patterson, 39, announced last month that he would run as a Democrat in the 2004 election and challenge Rep. Patricia Bailey, a Democrat in her first term. He turned in 850 voter signatures, which were reviewed after an objection was filed. The Board of Elections verified 336 of the signatures, three dozen more than required. Most of those disallowed involved signers not registered at the addresses given, board spokesman Tom Leach said. Patterson, convicted of killing an elderly Chicago couple in 1986, served 17 years on death row before he was pardoned last year by former Gov. George Ryan. Patterson had maintained that he was innocent and that police tortured him into confessing to the crime.
I only give it as sometimes articles on the TBO page 'disappear'.
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