Named Defendant In Dorsey V. United States arrested And Charged With New Federal Offenses

Springfield, Ill. B Today, a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging Edward Dorsey Sr., 42, of St. Anne, Illinois, with three counts of distributing cocaine base (“crack”) in violation of federal law. Additionally, the United States Probation Office for the Central District of Illinois previously filed a petition to revoke Dorsey’s federal supervised release (similar to parole) based on his recent drug trafficking activities, as well as based on allegations of Aggravated Unlawful Restraint and Battery involving a firearm in violation of state law.

According to today’s indictment, Dorsey allegedly distributed more than 28 grams (approximately one ounce) of crack cocaine in Kankakee County, in the Central District of Illinois, on both November 21 and December 18 of 2013. The indictment also alleges that Dorsey distributed crack cocaine on December 10, 2013, in Kankakee County, Illinois.

If convicted of the new drug trafficking charges, Dorsey faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years of imprisonment up to life imprisonment under the revised penalties contained in the Fair Sentencing Act.

Dorsey was on supervised release from a prior conviction for a federal crack cocaine trafficking offense.  Dorsey appealed his sentence to the United States Supreme Court, which concluded that Dorsey should have been sentenced under the Fair Sentencing Act.  This served to reduce Dorsey’s sentence and the sentence of others who were sentenced for similar crimes after the effective date of the Act, August 3, 2010.

Dorsey faces additional penalties because he was still serving his term of supervised release when he is alleged to have committed the crimes in the indictment.  According to a petition to revoke his supervised release, Dorsey also allegedly kidnapped and battered a man at a Citgo Gas Station in Pembroke, Illinois, on January 9, 2014. The petition further alleges that Dorsey grabbed the man by the shirt, forced him into a car, pointed a gun at the man, and punched and choked him. The petition alleges that Dorsey drove around with the man until Dorsey found a stolen television, at which point, he let the man go.

If Dorsey’s supervised release is revoked, he could be sentenced to up to three years of imprisonment in addition to any sentence for the drug trafficking charges.

Dorsey will appear before United States Magistrate Judge David G. Bernthal in Urbana at a future date to be arraigned on the drug trafficking charges and to address the petition to revoke his supervised release.

Members of the public are reminded that both an indictment and petition to revoke supervised release are merely accusations; the defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

The charges are the result of an investigation by the Kankakee Area Project Safe Neighborhoods Task Force, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the Kankakee Police Department, and the Kankakee County Major Crimes Task Force.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eugene L. Miller.