Bringing Transparency and Accountability

into Lake County’s legal system

Bringing Transparency and Accountability into Lake County’s legal system

Unfortunately, the trust is broken between the people and the current State’s Attorney’s Office.  Not only have Lake County’s wrongful prosecutions captured national headlines, but “insider politics” has dominated the way county officials resolve local matters. I will restore that trust by being open with the public about our policies, our practices, and our results.  

State’s Attorneys make some of the most important decisions in the justice system. They decide what charges to file, whether to argue for high cash bail, whether to send the case to a diversion program, whether to make a plea bargain, how to conduct the trial, and what sentence to recommend to the court. Our office will make current data available online with respect to these decisions so that the residents of Lake County can understand what is going on in their community. 

Separate from this updated information, we will compile and publish a report that examines the culture of the current office that led to so many wrongful prosecutions. These prosecutions shattered dozens of lives and cost Lake County taxpayers millions of dollars. We must confront this painful chapter in our history and reconcile its lessons with our current practices so that such injustices never happen again. 

Police defend us and are our heroes. But when a prosecutor hides evidence or when an officer violates the constitutional rights of a person, a culture of accountability is critical to maintaining trust in our legal system. However, the current office has allowed these types of serious mistakes to go unchecked. Mistakes lead to costly and lengthy appeals and delay justice for the victims.

We will conduct training for our local law enforcement units on the preservation of evidence and constitutional rights. It is important to keep track of such mistakes and report them to the public in a responsible manner so that the residents of Lake County understand the court process and thereby regain trust in our system.