Rep. Elgie Sims (D-Chicago) proclaimed that the new Bail Reform Act would “make Illinois a national leader in bail reform.” The measure, which applies to most non-violent misdemeanors and felonies, such as DUI, theft, and drug possession, creates a presumption that monetary bail is inappropriate in these cases. Instead, judges are encouraged to order alternative measures, such as electronic monitoring, heightened reporting, and daily curfews. If a judge does order monetary bail, there must be a bail reduction hearing within...

Following an eight-month, multi-agency investigation that yielded little evidence, Kane County prosecutors charged six men with

A judge denied bail for 31-year-old Waddel Adams, who is charged with home invasion, first-degree murder, and unlawful possession of a firearm following a fatal argument with his neighbor. By all accounts, Mr. Adams got along reasonably well with 30-year-old Bobby Lloyd Sr. until one of Mr. Lloyd’s four young children apparently hit Mr. Adams’ car with a rock. According to witnesses, an angry Mr. Adams confronted the child and his mother with a baseball bat. That incident ended without...

A crowd of spectators at a pretrial hearing saw Judge Vincent Gaughan approve the murder charges against a Chicago police officer; the lead defense attorney also tipped his hand as to his trial strategy. In October of 2014, Officer Van Dyke was among the officers who responded to a disturbance call involving 17-year-old Laquan McDonald; according to a witness, Mr. McDonald had burglarized several trucks in a parking lot and threatened the owner with a knife. Officer Van Dyke fired...

An Illinois insurance agent faces charges that he bilked more than

A Chicago man who was 15 when he pulled the trigger, had his sentence partially commuted in a gang-related double murder; the resentencing took place because the United States Supreme Court has declared that mandatory life sentences for juvenile offenders are unconstitutional. Eric Anderson was a member of the notorious Almighty Popes when he shot into a van carrying members of a rival gang and several other people. Two 13-year-old girls, Helena Martin and Carrie Hovel, were killed. At the...

A social media rivalry ended violently when a woman ran over her romantic rival in front of numerous witnesses. Cook County prosecutors charged 24-year-old Chynna Stapleton with murder in the death of 18-year-old Tatyanna Lewis. The two women had apparently exchanged semi-violent messages over Facebook about a man who was apparently Ms. Lewis’ boyfriend and the father of Ms. Stapleton’s child. The online squabble erupted into a physical altercation in Morgan Park; the fight later turned into something of a...

One man was caught with some 35,000 heroin doses; officials believe that the seven pounds of heroin have a street value of approximately $700,000. Another man was pulled over for a traffic stop and arrested for possessing heroin that may have been laced with fentanyl, a substance that is linked to a recent overdose death. The McHenry County Sheriff's Department began surveilling 47-year-old Roman Castro after they received information from an unnamed source that Mr. Castro had a significant amount...

Almost all DUI enforcement contacts trigger a mandatory drivers’ license suspension, either because the defendant refused to provide a chemical specimen or the defendant’s BAC exceeded the legal limit. License suspension hearings are not easy to win because the deck is stacked against the defendant and the issues are quite narrow. Nevertheless, aggressive representation at this hearing is often critical to a successful outcome in court. The only way to avoid automatic suspension is if the officer reverses course and...

A judge claimed that a defense attorney’s motion to suppress evidence was based on “

Regardless of the specific claims or defenses, Illinois judges nearly always grant emergency protective orders, largely because they only hear one side of the story. Therefore, the issue for alleged abusers is not so much what defenses to present but rather how to deal with the fallout from an EOP. In most cases, violating a protective order is a Class A misdemeanor, which means a maximum one year in jail and $2,500 fine. A person violates a protective order if...

In many ways, a second DUI is the first “mandatory” DUI because, unlike a first infraction, a second DUI is not eligible for court supervision. Therefore, unless an attorney can arrange a plea to reckless driving or secure a not-guilty verdict at trial, a second DUI will likely result in all the consequences of a conviction, including mandatory license revocation. The best way to approach a second DUI, or almost any other criminal case, is to evaluate any factual and...

Probably due to the proliferation of powerful opioid pain relievers, and the corresponding increased strength of many over-the-counter pain relievers, many law enforcement agencies now prosecute more DUI drug cases than in previous years, and in some cases, the number of cases may even eclipse the number of DUI alcohol cases. In one way, this crackdown may be misplaced because drivers under the influence of alcohol are about nine times more likely to cause a fatal crash than drivers under...

Republicans and Democrats have agreed on a measure that would increase the minimum sentence for some gun crimes while relaxing some drug crimes laws, so as to not overly inflate the prison population. Most of the 35 senators who voted in favor of the measure cited the spike in Chicago gun crimes as their motivation. A previous version of this bill stalled because of the variety of attitudes about gun crimes, depending on a person’s regional background and political affiliation....

Domestic violence protective orders are meant to be shields and not swords. In other words, the judge should grant a protective order to prevent domestic abuse, whether it is physical, mental, emotional, or otherwise. However, the judge should not grant a protective order just to punish the alleged abuser. While the vast majority of protective orders are granted, as they should be, there are some safeguards in place to ensure that the order is narrowly tailored to protect alleged victims...