Expungement Orders Ignored By State Police

The Illinois State Police have been ignoring Court Orders directing them to expunge criminal records. This practice seems to be limited to court orders coming out of the Markham Courthouse in Cook County. These court orders have been complied with by the Clerk of the Circuit Court and the arresting police agencies, but not the Illinois State Police. Approximately 281 expungement orders issued by the Chief Judge at Markham have not been complied with by the Illinois State Police. Once the expungement order is entered, the defendant, or their attorney, forwards the Order to the Illinois State Police. In 281 of those cases, the Illinois State Police has mailed a letter back to the defendant, or their attorney, informing them that their case could not be expunged. At least one Petition has been filed in Markham seeking to hold the Illinois State Police in contempt of court for failing to comply with a court order. In response, the Illinois State Police agreed to comply with 137 expungement orders but refused to comply with another 144. The petition to hold the Illinois State Police in contempt of court has since been voluntarily dismissed while the defendant in the case and the Illinois State Police try to negotiate a settlement of this issue.

Once again, this practice of ignoring expungement orders appears to be limited to expungement orders coming out of the Markham courthouse.

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense lawyers at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.

Civil Lawsuits Being Tried To Fight Gangs

I ran into a very interesting article in the Chicago Sun-Times about something that has been going on in DuPage County. Civil lawsuits are being filed against suspected street gang members. The lawsuits allows officials to seek money damages from gang members who break the law and allows officials to get court orders against these gang members barring them from engaging in any gang activity. Those activities include flashing gang signs, showing tattoos, hanging out with other known gang members and barring them from certain towns and suburbs where gang activity is known to occur. This practice started in California in the 1980's and has been tried in Texas and Minnesotta.

To read the full article click here.

According to a Chicago police spokeswoman, this is something that Chicago is reviewing.

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense lawyers at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.

Chicago Murder Rate Passes 500

At 8:40 p.m. on Monday night, Chicago officially passed the 500 mark for the number of murders in 2008. About 40 minutes later, the number reached 501. Both of Monday's murders appear to be gang related. The police think that about half of the 2008 murders were gang related. Regular readers of this blog know that we have been tracking the murder rate and the increase in the rate of violent crime in this city all year. We have cited numerous articles in which police and prosecutors have been trying to place blame on each other for the increase in these rates. The real significance of the 500 mark is when you compare the 2008 rate to the 2007 rate. The fact is that even with 500 murders, 2008 would still be one of the lowest murder rates in many decades. However, in 2007 there were 443 murders. 2008's murder rate would represent an almost 20% increase over last year. This summer, attention was focused on the increased violent crime and murder rate because of the dramatic increase in random shootings and violence in the city. Most recently, the triple slaying of Jennifer Hudson's family cast a national spotlight on Chicago's violent crime problem.

Chicago Police Superintendent, Jody Weis, who was appointed to the position almost a year ago, has taken quite a bit of criticism for these increased rates. There have been whispers of discontent among police officers and complaints of low morale. Superintendent Weiss has responded by urging his officers to be more aggressive and creating some special units to specifically combat gang violence.

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.

Cook County Judge Nabs Criminal

Cook County Circuit Court Judge Nicholas Ford was involved in an incident on Thursday night in which he ended up capturing a suspect that was tampering with his wife's car. Judge Ford was driving home when he saw a couple of men tampering with his wife's car. He chased one of the suspects down the street and was able to get him down. A struggle ensued and the man struck Judge Ford in the back of the neck with is elbow. Some neighbors joined in the effort and held the man down until police arrived. The 44 year old Judge Ford has been on the bench for about 11 years.

To read the full article, click here.

Judge Ford is a highly respected and admired Cook County Judge with a felony courtroom at 26th and California. He is back at work.

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.

Early Signs of Possible Tensions Between Police and Prosecutors

I ran into an article in the Chicago Sun-Times yesterday about how the Chicago Police has been reviewing the overtime hours of it's Detectives. The review seems to center around a sense within the police department that prosecutors have taken over the investigation of cases and are ordering detectives to do additional work on cases. From the article, there seems to be some tension between the police and prosecutors over the way prosecutors order police detectives to do additional work on cases. The article states that about half of the overtime of detectives is due to additional work requested by prosecutors. The article also seems to state that there is some tension between the police and prosecutors over this process.

To read the article in it's entirety, click here.

We will keep on eye on the news to see if there is more to this apparent "tension" between police and prosecutors.

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense lawyers at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-8--228-7295.

States Putting Criminal Records Online - Not Illinois

I ran into an interesting article which discusses how states are starting to put criminal databases online. On Monday Vermont became the newest state to put these records online. There are currently 20 states that allow citizens to access the criminal files online. Some charge a fee and allow people to request corrections if the information available online is wrong.

To read the article click here.

There is no such effort being made in Illinois that we are aware of. Criminal defense attorneys in Cook County have long dreamed of the day that they could access the criminal case database in the Clerk of the Circuit Court's website online. This would be particularly helpful to find out exactly what clients, and prospective clients, are charged with and where cases are assigned from the Chief Judge. According to this article at least 20 states have overcome whatever fears may exist of clerical errors and potential liability. There must be some way to bring Cook County into the 21st Century when it comes to this.

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense lawyers at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.

Video Bail Hearings at 26th Street Finished

Since 1999, individuals newly arrested have stood in front of a camera in the basement of the courthouse at 26th and California while the judge sitting in the courtroom above them presided over their bond hearing. Starting Monday, this process has been eliminated. Many attorneys have argued for years that a video bond hearing violates an individuals constitution right to be present in court. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart hopes that by ending these video bond hearings and bringing individuals in front of judges, it will ease overcrowding in the jail by giving judges a better idea of whether someone should be released on bond or held in custody in the jail. This is also part of Sheriff Dart's effort to give judges the final say so in whether someone should be eligible to be released on electronic monitoring.

Sheriff's Dart's ultimate goal is to ease overcrowding in the Cook County Jail.

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.