In a recent court proceeding regarding his arrest for a shooting, Chicago gang leader Thaddeus Jimenez was revealed to have spent an awarded settlement of $25 Million to revive his old gang, the Simon City Royals in 2014. He received this huge sum of money when he was released from Cook County after being wrongfully convicted of the murder of gang member Eric Morro.

Jimenez was arrested in 2015 for shooting an ex-gang member on Chicago’s Northwest side. He and fellow gang associate Jose Roman were driving around the Irving Park neighborhood in a Mercedes Benz when they came across a man, Earl Casteel, 33, and violently threatened him at gunpoint. Roman filmed the incident on his iPhone as they were documenting their ride through the neighborhood.

"Why shouldn't I blast you right now?" Jimenez threatened. "Blast me, n*gga?" Casteel replied in the video. "You my brother, man! I ain't got nothing against you." Jimenez aimed his pistol at Casteel's legs and shot him once in each thigh.

Both men are currently facing charges and sentencing for their guilty pleas to a one federal weapons count.

The Chicago Tribune reports that the money from his wrongful conviction was spent on resurrecting the defunct gang after half of his earnings went to his civil attorneys. He reportedly paid $50,000 recruitment bonuses, threw “lavish drug-fueled parties” and paid bonds to free other associates who were facing criminal charges. Jimenez was also “buying guns and fancy cars, and even giving cash prizes to members willing to tattoo their faces with the Simon City Royals insignia.” He was originally sentenced to 45 years in prison until his 2014 release.

In a court filing, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michelle Petersen and Kathryn Malizia writes on how Jimenez squandered his opportunity to do some good with the money and decided to build a gang. "(Jimenez) could have used this money in any number of ways — to assist friends and family, contribute to the community, sponsor others wrongfully convicted or simply live in comfort for the rest of his natural life — instead he chose to build a gang," they wrote.

U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber sentenced Jimenez to 9 years and 2 months in prison, as Jimenez's attorney tried to plead his case:

"Ironically, the restitution he received for his terrible injuries did not bring healing,” wrote Greenburg it just drew other vultures to pick at his wounds," wrote Greenberg. "His new family became the gang, reconstructed from his childhood memory of his uncles, the kids he had run with before his first arrest. They became his crew — for a price — and gave him the self-esteem he had always craved and had never had."

Source: chicagotribune.com