Schedule a Free Consultation|
Call 815-740-4025
-
- Home
- Our Firm
- Criminal Defense
- Assault & Battery
- Domestic Battery / Domestic Violence
- DUI/DWI
- Drug Crimes
- Driver's License Reinstatement
- Speeding Tickets, Traffic Offenses & Violations
- CDL Violations
- Gun & Weapons Charges
- Felony Crimes
- Misdemeanor Crimes
- Juvenile Crimes
- Expungement & Record Sealing
- Resisting Arrest / Obstructing the Police
- Retail Theft & Shoplifting
- Police Questioning: When Miranda Warnings Are Required
- Media
- Blog
- Contact
Recent Blog Posts
Aurora City Official Picked Up on Second Theft Charge in Three Years
A simple look around any retail establishment will demonstrate the store’s concerns regarding shoplifting and retail theft. Conspicuously placed surveillance cameras, security tags, and other ant-theft devices are all designed to help reduce theft-related losses that cost retailers around the country hundreds of millions of dollars each year. In most communities, government officials and lawmakers continue to look for ways to help business owners and retail outlets protect their investments, but at least one such area representative seems to have a slightly different take on the matter.
Alderman Arrested Again
An alderman from the city of Aurora, Illinois, was arrested on misdemeanor shoplifting charges Sunday evening as she left a Meijer store on Route 59, according to police records. The woman, who represents Aurora’s 10th Ward on city council, was allegedly seen by store loss prevention personnel hiding more than $55.00 worth of merchandise in her purse, then leaving the store after paying for other items without ever opening her purse at the checkout.
Former Prosecutor Disbarred for Innocent Man on Death Row
To many people, and especially those working toward the abolition of the death penalty in the United States, the application of capital punishment in the state of Texas represents a cause for serious concern. While proponents of the death penalty continue to point to the alleged deterrent factor, the danger of condemning the wrong person is one that is certainly very real. This week, a disciplinary committee upheld the disbarment of former prosecutor over actions that led to an innocent man spending more than a decade waiting to die for a crime he did not commit.
The criminal defendant at the center of the case was convicted and sent to death row for the deaths of six people in 1992. His conviction was overturned in 2006, but it took an additional four years to secure his release from prison, when a special prosecutor finally took a closer look at his case, declaring him to be innocent and deserving of freedom.
According to court documents, the prosecutor in the original trial not only withheld evidence that may have exonerated the defendant, but allowed—and even encouraged—witnesses to provide demonstrably false testimony. The prosecutor left his post as a county district attorney in 2000, and the State Bar revoked his law license last summer following an extensive investigation. The Board of Disciplinary Appeals recently upheld the disbarment, effectively ending the former prosecutor’s career.
Judge Rules Chicago Traffic Camera Tickets Violate Due Process
As more and more communities around the country continue to install cameras at intersections and other areas of traffic concern, a Cook County judge has found major problems with the program in Chicago. The city is now facing the possibility of being forced to refund millions of dollars collected in fines from motorists who were ticketed as a result of being caught on camera.
The ruling came in a lawsuit filed almost a year ago by three named plaintiffs, alleging that the city violated its own municipal codes in the process of ticketing and collecting fines related to red-light and speed-cameras. By violating the city code, Judge Kathleen Kennedy ruled, ticketed motorists were denied due process and the proper ability to contest their issued citations.
No Second Notice
When a vehicle is caught breaking the law by a red-light camera or speed camera, the city is supposed to send a Notice of Violation to the registered owner of the vehicle. According to Chicago city code, if the owner fails to respond, a second notice is to be sent to the vehicle owner prior to the determination of liability—which is essentially a default judgment of guilt. The lawsuit against the city, however, indicates that second notices are not being sent to motorists and the liability determinations are being made too quickly. Attorneys for the claimants maintain that the second notice is a necessary step in the process to ensure a suspected violator’s right to contest the citation prior to being found financially liable. The suit further claims that late fees are being applied to fines inappropriately, failing to adhere to the timeframes and grace periods provided in the law.
Feds Requiring Electronic Record Keeping For Truckers
Truck drivers often face long hours and demanding working conditions in order to secure a living for themselves and their families. Therefore, it makes sense that protecting their commercial driver’s license is an important element of their job that keeps them on the road. However, a new federal mandate that will monitor exactly how much time is spent on the road is creating privacy concerns for some.
Electronic Logging Devices Now Mandatory
Although a federal regulation mandating that all truckers switch from keeping written or paper logs of their driving time and miles to an electronic logging device (ELD) was announced more than two years ago, it is just now taking effect in Illinois. Those supporting the change claim that requiring all truckers to be monitored via the ELD will make the roads safer for everyone who uses them.
Electronic Logging Devices will maintain a record of every hour the truck is driven, the route used and where a vehicle is at all times. Use of an EDL will not alter the allowable time a driver may spend behind the wheel, which is typically described as:
Study Examines Increasing Rate of Marijuana-Use Disorder
Even as efforts to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana in Illinois continue, many thousands of people are estimated to use the drug on at least a casual basis. In fact, marijuana is the most frequently-used illegal drug in the United States. While that in and of itself may not be particularly surprising, recent estimates indicate that some 22 million Americans over the age of 12 use marijuana.
Many proponents of decriminalized or legalized marijuana believe the risks associated with the drug are lower than even those presented by alcohol use, including what they believe to a non-existent risk of chemical dependency. Addiction, it would seem, can take many forms, and according to study released this summer, there definitely seems to be some type of addictive quality to using the drug, at least for certain.
Marijuana-Use Disorder
A collaborative effort between researchers at Columbia University, National Institutes of Health, and the New York State Psychiatric Institute found that marijuana use has more than doubled in the last decade, as public opinion has changed dramatically. A little over ten years ago, about 4.1 percent of Americans reported using marijuana in the last year. Today, the number is about 9.5 percent. Correspondingly, marijuana-use disorder has also increased, although the incidence rate among users has remained roughly the same.
Retrial Ordered in Fatal Police Shooting
Early this week, a federal judge imposed sanctions against the city of Chicago and one of its veteran attorneys for concealing evidence in a trial concerning a fatal police shooting from 2011. The attorney resigned just hours later but, along with the city, has been ordered to pay attorney’s fees to the plaintiffs that will likely total hundreds of thousands of dollars. Only then can a retrial take place, as the family of the shooting victim seeks damages from the Chicago Police Department and the city.
Overturning the Verdict
Last March, in the original trial, a federal jury found in favor of the Chicago PD officers who shot the man, concluding the shooting was justified. The officers had testified that the man had been pulled over because his vehicle matched a description that was given over their police radios of a car connected to an earlier shooting. Court records indicated, however, that the officers could not have heard the report as they claimed because it aired in a different zone. The attorney in question admitted during the trial that he had failed to turn over a recording of the dispatch the officers actually did hear. When pressed by the judge, the attorney acknowledged that he knew about the recording prior to the trial but did not really think it would be helpful to the plaintiffs.
New Law to Allow Driving Relief for Four-Time DUI Offenders
Police officials in Bedford County, Tennessee, last week reported the arrest of a woman on charges of driving under the influence, or DUI. While such an arrest is far from unusual, the woman’s arrest history makes this particular case especially interesting. According to reports, the current charges mark the 17th time she has faced prosecution for DUI, and, correspondingly, 16 charges of driving with a revoked license. Officials indicate that the woman’s first DUI arrest was in 1985, but that six of the offenses have occurred in the last ten years.
Another Chance for Repeat Offenders in Illinois
As illustrated by the Tennessee case, some people will always try to find ways around the existing laws to do what they want. Meanwhile, here in the state of Illinois, a new law is set to take effect that will offer those with multiple DUI convictions a legal avenue for restoring some driving privileges. A person with 16 prior convictions, as one might expect, will not qualify for relief consideration, but under the new law, four-time offenders will have the ability to apply for a restricted driving permit.
How Secure Are Attorney-Client Communications in Prison?
The confidentiality of client-lawyer communications is bedrock constitutional right in our criminal justice system. However, recent revelations have shown cracks in the confidentiality of those communications when clients are in jail. Not everyone in jail has even been convicted of a crime; some are just unable to make bail and are awaiting trial.
The Securus Hack
Securus Technologies is the largest provider of telecommunication services to jails and prisons in the United States. A recent hack and data dump revealed that not only is Securus recording calls between clients and their lawyers—despite previous denials by the company—but that those recordings are not stored in a secure manner.
In a two-year period across 37 states, over 70 million calls were compromised. Of those calls, at least 14,000 calls were between lawyers and clients.
Issues With Other Forms of Communication
In this digital age, there are many ways for lawyers and clients to communicate. However, options for communicating with incarcerated clients are limited. Some jail and prison locations are too remote for frequent in-person visits.
U.S. Supreme Court Declines Highland Park Gun Law Case
Despite creating no legal precedent, the Supreme Court of the United States seemed to send a strong signal this week regarding its position on the rights of municipalities to enact strict gun control laws. By a vote of 7-2, the nation’s high court elected not to hear the challenge to a local ordinance restricting the sale of certain firearms in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park. The decision to turn down the case has no bearing on the outcome of future cases, but many believe it is further proof of the courts hesitance to expand the protections of the right to bear arms contained in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The Gun Ban
The denied appeal was a challenge filed against Highland Park’s ban on weapons determined to be “assault weapons,” including AR-15 rifles, and magazines with a capacity of greater than 10 rounds. The ordinance was enacted in 2013 as part of a growing concern over public access to certain firearms in the wake of highly-publicized mass shootings in Connecticut and Colorado. Advocates for gun rights quickly challenged the local law on the basis that it violated the Second Amendment’s promised right to bear arms.
Illinois Man Charged With Concealing Roommate’s Body and Obstruction of Justice
A young man appeared in Cook County Bond Court this past weekend, charged with obstruction of justice and the concealment of a death. The allegations against the 23-year-old Midlothian man are connected to the death of his 25-year-old roommate, which the man claims occurred more than two weeks ago. The court decided to hold the man without bail until an autopsy could be completed on the roommate’s body.
Trying to Avoid Eviction
According to reports from the Chicago Tribune and other news outlets, the man claimed that his roommate died of drug overdose on November 13. He allegedly panicked and, fearing that he would be evicted from their shared apartment, attempted to hide the death. He is thought to have put the roommate’s body in a suitcase, dragged it to a basement storage area, and left it there. Another resident of the building eventually notified police when the foul odor of decomposition became apparent. Police traced the smell and discovered the suitcase containing the roommate’s remains.
