Sema'j Crosby Grand Jury In 60 Days: Freedom First Demands

JOLIET, IL — Will County Sheriff Mike Kelley's office has spent more than two years investigating Sema'j Crosby's tragic death in Joliet Township. Deputies have made no arrests surrounding the 16-month-old girl's death, but the cold case may be about to break, thanks to the efforts of Chicago-based Freedom First International.

Freedom First International has led and organized some of the most renowned civil rights cases in America, including the Tamir Rice case in Cleveland, and they're now working Crosby's case as well, according to a press release. The civil rights organization issued a press bulletin late Tuesday night.

Here were the highlights:

As many of you already know Semaj Crosby’s murder has not resulted in arrests, although police say the investigation is still open. Tragically, we at Freedom First International have worked on the ground both locally and nationally as we have prayed for resolve and justice. For purposes of transparency we now want to present certain key facts to the public.

For the record, Freedom First International worked with a local groups help strengthen their narrative and advocacy while doing positive work again, to bring to justice those responsible for taking this child’s life.

As a result of on the ground advocacy work, Freedom First International was able to use certain proxy to forge the release of the coroners report on the ground as we directly pushed to bring 'Justice to Semaj' –The cause of death for Semaj Crosby, had been released which was ruled asphyxia and her death has been declared a homicide, by the Will County Coroner’s office.

We were later asked to work with the Father of Semaj and we at Freedom First International then helped to develop some remembrance of an 'estate' for Semaj all in the name of balancing justice as well as restoration ... We believed our effort would help fuel the fight again, to bring justice to Semaj in no uncertain terms.

Sema'j Crosby investigation enters year three:

At this time we have to say that we have watched over the course of the past year and reviewed on the ground efforts and allowed the Will County Sheriff to do their job as an investigatory unit, above and beyond certain missteps they made which we believe has resulted in prolonging this case.

Certain Community members also caused confusion by bringing innuendo which has led to a flurry of misinformation as well as public confusion.

Advocacy groups on the ground raised money for funeral purposes and advocacy for Semaj and after we conducted research it shows that those funds (were) either mismanaged, misused or moreover fraudulently taken. We would point to members of the Justice for Semaj Action Team which we noted, had collected various funds from the public and openly distrusted those funds without ledger in addition to using those funds personally.

Also we must note the current Will County indictment by the Leader of the Justice for Semaj Action Team for similar but unrelated crime.

Upon discovery of those facts we have decided to refer an official investigation by the appropriate State Law Enforcement Office for follow up.

At this time we have to say that we have watched over the course of the past year and reviewed the ground effort and allowed the Will County Sheriff to do their job as an investigatory unit, above and beyond certain missteps which we believe have resulted in long-term prolongation of this case.

As an organization we will now call for an independent investigation of not only DCFS but the Will County Sheriff’s response or lack thereof in the case of Semaj and we strongly believe that local agencies have failed in their responsibility to protect children.

We maintain that we stand behind any and all efforts for justice when orderly and organized, 'justice' up to and including ensuring suspects in this case be interviewed by local investigators.

With that in mind we now will ask for no more 60 days for Will County Officials to react. We will ask for 60 days (from) this date for convenience of a grand jury to review this case.

After 60 days, we are prepared to bring this case in remedy using national and international partners to further expose any and all road blocks that prevented Semaj from receiving justice.

We firmly believe that any group of citizens – empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings and investigate potential criminal conduct when presented with facts will move for prosecution.

Again, at this point our direction is to take appropriate actions that are within our scope of authority to bring closure to this case and prosecute those people who hurt Semaj Crosby.