Family of Gang Leader Sues Over Funeral Footage

The family of notorious Chicago gang leader Jeff Fort has sued the Public Broadcasting Service and the local anti-violence group CeaseFire on Wednesday, alleging that a film crew taped a funeral for Fort's mother this year without permission.

During the May 13 funeral, the crew took unauthorized footage of Fort's mother, Annie Gibson Bacon, as she lay in an open casket, according to the lawsuit filed by Bacon's daughter and grandson in Cook County Circuit Court.

Elnora Luten and Naji Mustaafa Fort also allege that the crews, who were helped by CeaseFire, captured images of them grieving at the funeral. "The apparent motivation for the videotaping of the funeral was the relationship between Annie Gibson Bacon and her son, Jeff Fort," according to the lawsuit.

Fort, the imprisoned former leader of the El Rukngang, is not named as a party to the suit. Fort is in prison for separate convictions for murder and conspiring with the Libyan government to commit terrorist acts in the United States.

Representatives for PBS and its subsidiary "Frontline," which is also named in the suit, could not be reached for comment Wednesday night.

But Ameena Matthews, who works for CeaseFire and is also Fort's daughter and Bacon's granddaughter, called the suit "deliriously foolish."

"CeaseFire never authorized anyone to film at the funeral," Matthews said.

Frontline is currently working on a documentary involving CeaseFire called "The Interrupters," which is about a group of men and women in Chicago who are working to end violence, according to the film's web site. The site says that "Hoop Dreams" director Steve James and "There Are No Children Here" author Alex Kotlowitz are also on the project.

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