Cook County probation officer Michael Dickerson, a gang intelligence officer of 20 years, was charged with soliciting a hit man to kill his wife, according to the Chicago Tribune. He was ordered held on $500,000 bail.
If convicted on charges of solicitation of murder for hire, the 47-year-old faces between 20 and 40 years in prison. And if the evidence is strong, as prosecutors claim, there's a good chance his Chicago criminal attorney will suggest a guilty plea.
Michael Dickerson apparently asked the wrong guy to do the job. The would-be hit-man, who was offered just $1,000 for the hit, went to his lawyer and then the two of them met with Cook County sheriff's officials and members of the Cook County state's attorney's office.
Prosecutors say the veteran probation officer went to the home of the intended hit-man on April 21 and propositioned him:
"I need someone to go away... I need someone to go away and not come back."
And then, according to prosecutors, he handed the man an envelope with information on his wife's car, where it would be parked and when it would arrive at the target location. A May 28 court order allowed additional meetings between Michael Dickerson and the intended hit-man to be recorded and videotaped.
This gave investigators a wealth of evidence, they claim, including the following message from Michael Dickerson in which he reassures the man that he'll pay him after he carries out the grim deed:
"Make it look like a robbery; after you shoot her, I got you."
Meanwhile, he called a deputy chief of the probation department from jail (his one phone call), asking him to tell the judge that he was "on a long term undercover investigation," saying the police were trying to frame him.
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