Gun, Drugs Found On Man In 'Gun Diversion' Program: Police

GLENCOE, IL — A Chicago man who had been days away from completing a gun diversion program has been charged with new felony firearm and narcotics offenses following his arrest Sunday in Glencoe.

Larry G. McGinnis, a resident of the Chatham neighborhood, was the driver of a black Kia with tinted windows pulled over by a Glencoe public safety officer around 4:45 p.m. near Dundee Road and the Edens Expressway, authorities said.

Prosecutors said the officers smelled burnt cannabis and searched the car, finding one bag full of drugs — 43 pills of suspected oxycodone, a bottle of codeine, two bottles of promethazine and over 100 grams of cannabis — and another with a loaded gun in it.

McGinnis' defense attorney, Michael Johnson, conceded that his client took responsibility for the bag full of narcotics but said the gun belonged to the car's passenger.

The passenger denied the gun was his, according to Assistant State's Attorney Jenna Reinhardt, who said McGinnis has a revoked Firearms Owners Identification Card.

McGinnis, 26, was previously arrested in November 2019 in Chicago and charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.

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According to his attorney, McGinnis has been working as a truck driver since leaving high school and helps take care of a family member with special needs.

Johnson said the Cook County State's Attorney's Office found McGinnis was a good candidate for a gun diversion program, and it had been due to be officially completed on Sept. 1.

"He did all the classes and the therapy," Johnson said.

"It's only a week away and he would have got the gun diversion," he added. "This is a shame that this happened before he had an opportunity to complete that program."

It was not immediately clear in which of the diversion programs offered by the state's attorney's office McGinnis had been enrolled. No additional information about his arrest was available Monday afternoon from a spokesperson for the Glencoe Department of Public Safety.

Prosecutors filed a motion for violation of bail bond on McGinnis' earlier, non-cash bond, and the judge revoked it, so McGinnis next must appear in court in Bridgeview on the earlier charge — the one that had been set to be resolved through the diversion program.

Cook County Associate Judge John Calabrese said he took into account, in determining the appropriate bail for the new charges, that prosecutors had considered McGinnis a good candidate for the program.

"At the same time," Calabrese said, "it appears that they lacked some judgement in this regard because apparently the defendant has picked up a new charge during the pendency of that and it includes serious narcotics violations as well as a gun case."

The judge ordered McGinnis held until his next court appearance Sept. 1 unless he can come up with the $15,000 cash portion of his bail.

"Having a gun case pending and picking up a new gun case, in my mind," he said, "calls for an extraordinary bond."