Bail granted to man charged in Richard’s Bar stabbing
Thomas Tansey | Chicago police
CHICAGO - After spending more than two weeks in jail, the Marine Corps veteran charged with fatally stabbing a man outside Richard’s Bar was set granted bail Monday.
Thomas Tansey, 31, had been ordered held without bail earlier this month after he allegedly slashed 23-year-old Kenneth Paterimos with a boxcutter during a fight in front of the West Town tavern on Feb. 21.
But on Monday, a Cook County judge granted Tansey $250,000 bail after his attorney argued that witnesses said Paterimos had been on top of Tansey, pummeling the larger man, before he was stabbed, and that no witness had seen the Tansey inflict the fatal wounds, the Sun-Times is reporting.
Tansey was initially arrested Feb. 21 after allegedly stabbing Paterimos multiple times outside the bar in the 400 block of North Milwaukee Avenue, police said, but was later released without charges after he claimed self-defense in the attack.
Tansey was previously convicted of battery when he tried to strike a man with a handgun that he was unlawfully carrying in 2016 and pushed the man to the ground, according to court records.
On Tuesday, family of Paterimos gathered outside Richard’s Bar and chanted “justice for Kenny.”
Paterimos’ family says the suspect in the killing yelled a homophobic slur at Paterimos before stabbing him multiple times outside the bar.