Cook County Judge Carol Kipperman on Nov. 15 sentenced Learnell Brown, 27, of North Riverside to 15 years in prison for kidnapping his girlfriend’s two children and threatening to harm them in September 2011.

Brown had been in Cook County Jail since his arrest on Sept. 13, 2011 on Chicago’s West Side.

Earlier that day, Brown kidnapped the children, age 10 and 11, from a North Riverside apartment he shared with his 28-year-old girlfriend. The kidnapping came in the wake of an argument, which resulted in Brown’s girlfriend seeking an order of protection against him.

While the woman was out buying a new cellphone, her sister received a phone call from Brown on the evening of Sept. 13. He told her “to please forgive me for what I’m about to do to these children.”

Brown’s girlfriend then called police, who escorted her home to check on her children. They were missing, along with Brown and the woman’s car.

Police searched the West Side after Brown’s girlfriend was able to reach him by phone and set up a meeting. Two officers in an unmarked squad car were stopped at a light at the intersection of Cicero Avenue and Madison Street when Brown and the children pulled up next to them.

Brown tried to flee when police attempted to pull him over. He eventually crashed the car into a traffic circle at Karlov and Gladys, and then tried to run away before he was taken into custody by police. The children were unharmed.

At a bench trial on Aug. 23, Kipperman found Brown guilty of two counts of aggravated kidnapping and one count of aggravated fleeing and eluding police.

On Nov. 19, he was taken to Stateville Correctional Center in Joliet, where he is serving his sentence.

Flying without a license

A Broadview man whose driver’s license has been expired since 2007 has been charged with reckless driving and other traffic offenses after he allegedly led police on a high-speed chase through residential streets in North Riverside just after 12:30 a.m. on Nov. 25.

A police officer traveling southbound on First Avenue near 31st Street reported clocking Valerio Carrillo’s 2004 Pontiac at 70 mph in a 35 mph zone as it sped northbound on First Avenue.

The officer did a U-turn to catch up with the car, but Carrillo, 35, allegedly sped up to more than 80 mph before turning west onto 26th Street and then headed onto side streets, blowing through two stop signs before pulling over and turning off the car’s lights in the 2400 block of 5th Avenue. The officer reported having to travel at speeds in excess of 50 mph to keep Carrillo’s vehicle in sight.

The police officer ordered Carrillo out of his car at gunpoint and then took him into custody without further incident.

Robbery was apparent payback

A Nov. 20 incident reported as an armed robbery in Riverside appears to have been payback for an earlier incident in which the robbery victim reportedly participated in a plan to steal a bag of cannabis from a teenage dealer in Brookfield.

All of the people involved in the incident are juveniles, according to police, and the alleged robbery victim and his family reportedly are not cooperating with police, who either want them to sign a form pressing charges against the boy’s attackers or sign a form saying they don’t want to press charges.

Police were called to the 100 block of Northgate Road about 11:40 p.m., after the alleged victim was jumped by six subjects, most of whom were known to the victim. The alleged attackers reportedly struck the victim with a blunt object and took the victim’s cellphone after beating him.

Later, police learned that the beating was apparently payback for the victim’s role in a plan to steal a bag of cannabis from one of the alleged attackers earlier that evening. The victim and two others had gone to the 3700 block of Grand Boulevard in Brookfield to obtain the cannabis. When the cannabis dealer handed over the bag of cannabis, the trio reportedly ran off without paying for it.

These items were obtained from police reports filed by the Riverside, North Riverside and Brookfield police departments, Nov. 19-25, and represent a portion of the incidents to which police responded. Unless otherwise indicated, anybody named in these reports has only been charged with a crime. These cases have not been adjudicated.

-Compiled by Bob Uphues