Posted on July 28, 2018 in Uncategorized

Being charged and convicted of a DUI, or even being suspected of a DUI, can carry serious consequences, including the suspension or revocation of your driver’s license. In Illinois, you face a statutory summary license suspension if you fail a chemical test, refuse to submit to one, or fail to finish chemical testing. If you fail a chemical test, that means your blood-alcohol content (BAC) was more than .08% or you had a THC content of five or more nanograms per milliliter of blood or 10 or more nanograms per milliliter of a different bodily substance. The suspension is not a criminal charge, so you do not have to be convicted of a DUI to have your license suspended. Though suspensions can be troublesome, you have two options for obtaining a driving permit during your suspension.

Monitoring Device Driving Permit (MDDP)

This type of permit is available to first-time DUI offenders through the Illinois Secretary of State’s office and allows unlimited driving during the statutory suspension period. In order to receive a MDDP, you must have a breath alcohol ignition interlock device (BAIID) installed in your vehicle and maintained for the length of your suspension period. Those who are not eligible for a MDDP include drivers who are under the age of 18 and those who have previously received a statutory summary suspension in the last 5 yrrs. Drivers are also not eligible for a MDDP if they were driving with an invalid license, or if the DUI resulted in the death or great bodily harm to another.

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 Posted on July 25, 2018 in Uncategorized

When charged with driving under the influence, or any other crime, you have two choices. One is to plead guilty, often in exchange for a more lenient sentence because you are saving the prosecutor the time and cost of a trial. The other choice is to plead “not guilty” and ask for a trial.

If you plead guilty, you can pay the penalties and get on with your life more quickly. But unless you get court supervision, you will have a conviction on your criminal record and that conviction can bar you from many employment opportunities among other consequences.

Alternatively, if you go to trial, you could avoid a conviction entirely. And even if you lose the trial and are convicted, at least you still have the option of appealing that decision to a higher court based on any errors that may have occurred during your trial. Judges and juries do not always make the right decision, and it is possible to win on appeal, as evidenced by a recent Illinois court decision.

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 Posted on July 24, 2018 in Uncategorized

White-collar crime is an interesting and unique classification of criminal behavior. Unlike many other crimes, white-collar crime is nonviolent crime that is typically perpetrated by those of high socioeconomic status or occupational responsibility. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has defined white-collar crime as illegal acts characterized by concealment or violation of trust, which are committed to obtain money, property, or services or to obtain a personal or business advantage. According to the FBI, white-collar crime costs the United States more than $300 billion annually, which is why these types of crimes are taken seriously and prosecuted accordingly.

Money Laundering

This type of white-collar crime involves perpetrators hiding the source from which they are getting their money and making it look like it came from somewhere else. Often, this is done by criminals who are gaining money from illegal activities such as:

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 Posted on July 21, 2018 in Uncategorized

The United States is in the midst of what is being called an “epidemic.” Americans are struggling with heroin dependency and abuse on a scale that has never been seen before. Health experts believe that prescription opioid painkillers are a large part of the problem, but patients who are in serious pain often have few options. In Illinois, however, suffering patients may soon have temporary access to medical marijuana as an alternative to prescription opioids.

A Landmark Measure

Last month, both houses of the Illinois legislature passed The Alternatives to Opioids Act, which would give millions of Illinois residents conditional access to the state’s medical marijuana program. Under the existing program, an eligible patient must have one of several dozen approved medical conditions and undergo an application process through the state. It also requires patients to be fingerprinted and have a background check completed.

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 Posted on July 19, 2018 in Uncategorized

When someone is convicted of a felony in Illinois, the maximum penalties can include years in prison and thousands of dollars in fines. But what is the lightest sentence that the court is allowed to hand down?

Can You Get Court Supervision for a Felony?

Illinois does not allow court supervision for felonies. Court supervision is a sentencing option only for traffic violations, petty offenses, and most misdemeanors, including a first-time DUI (but not a repeat DUI).

For those unfamiliar with the term, court supervision is a deferred dismissal of your case. At the end of the supervision period (usually one year), if you have met the requirements set by the court (e.g., not committing another violation and finishing an educational program), the case is dismissed, and no conviction is entered on your record.

Is Probation Without Jail Time Possible for a Felony?

Illinois law allows a sentence of probation (with no time in prison) for most, but not all, felonies in Illinois. First degree murder and Class X felonies (e.g., aggravated assault with a firearm or drug possession involving large quantities of heroin or similarly dangerous drugs) are not eligible for probation; a term of imprisonment is required by state law.

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 Posted on July 18, 2018 in Uncategorized

Did you know that more people now die in the U.S. each year from drug/alcohol overdoses than from shootings or car accidents? In response to this public health crisis, state governments have been experimenting with a variety of solutions, including substance abuse treatment programs and other alternatives to imprisonment for low-level drug offenses.

Illinois, for example, offers a program known as 410 probation, also known as first-time drug offender probation ( 720 ILCS 570/410 ). As with any sentence of probation or court supervision, an offender must plead guilty to the drug charge. But if they fulfill all of the terms of the 410 probation, the charges will be dismissed, and they will not have a conviction on their record. (In that respect, this is more like a court supervision than a probation.) Avoiding a drug felony conviction can be critical to one’s ability to obtain employment in many fields.

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 Posted on July 17, 2018 in Uncategorized

When you get a traffic ticket for running a red light or speeding a few miles per hour above the speed limit, you may be inclined to simply plead guilty, pay the fine, and move on with your life. For relatively minor moving violations, such an approach is understandable and even reasonable. Sometimes, however, a traffic violation can be serious enough to incur actual criminal charges. One such violation is reckless driving.

What Is Reckless Driving?

The offense of reckless driving can encompass a wide variety of unsafe driving behaviors. Illinois law defines reckless driving as operating a motor vehicle “with a willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property.” The law also specifies that reckless driving includes using “an incline in a roadway, such as a railroad crossing, bridge approach or hill, to cause the vehicle to become airborne.”

The second definition is fairly straightforward, but the first is certainly open to interpretation. A conviction requires prosecutors to prove that the driver acted with a complete lack of consideration for others—or that he or she intentionally placed others at risk.

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 Posted on July 16, 2018 in Uncategorized

The Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists (AAIM) has released its annual DUI arrest statistics for Illinois for 2017. Each year, the Schaumburg-based organization sends surveys to police stations across the state to gather statistics about DUIs. AAIM conducts the surveys with a grant from the Illinois Department of Transportation and has been doing so since 1990, which is nearly 28 years. The organization said they received responses from 81 percent of the 700 police departments that they sent the survey to.

Last Year’s Arrest Statistics

According to the results of the survey, the Rockford Police Department was the department that recorded the highest number of DUI arrests in 2018. Rockford police conducted 490 DUI arrests in 2017, compared to 459 arrests in 2016, a 6.8 percent increase. Trailing Rockford were Elgin, Decatur, Cicero, Aurora, Lombard, Carol Stream, Springfield, Naperville, and Normal. Gurnee saw the largest increase in 2017, an increase of 40.7 percent.

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 Posted on July 13, 2018 in Uncategorized

If you are a driver in the United States, you will probably be pulled over at some point in your life for a traffic violation. It is not an uncommon occurrence-in 2011, 42 percent of people who interacted with police had done so because of a traffic stop, and about half of those interactions resulted in a traffic ticket, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Some traffic offenses can result in serious consequences, such as jail time, fines, or your license being suspended. If you have been issued a traffic ticket, it is not the end of the world-you can fight the ticket if you believe that you did not deserve it.

Should You Fight the Ticket?

One of the first steps you should take after receiving a traffic ticket should be deciding whether or not you should actually fight the ticket. Some things to consider when making this decision include:

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 Posted on July 12, 2018 in Uncategorized

When a school-aged child is sent to the principal’s office, he or she is usually in trouble. Of course, the type of trouble is usually related to behavior in school or on school grounds. A meeting with the principal often results in the student receiving detention or being suspended for violating school rules. For a 13-year-old-boy in Kankakee County, however, a trip to the principal’s office resulted in juvenile felony charges for violating Illinois’s controversial eavesdropping law.

A Quick Recap

In February of this year, the teen was called down to the principal’s office at his middle school in Manteno School District in Kankakee County. The teen had reportedly failed to show up for series of detentions. Before the boy entered the office, he started recording audio with his cell phone.

According to reports, the teen argued with both the principal and assistant principal for about 10 minutes in the school secretary’s office—where the door was open to a main school hallway. At some point, the boy told the two administrators that he was recording the conversation. The principal reportedly told the teen that he was committing a felony and cut the meeting off immediately. Several weeks later, the teen was charged with one Class 4 felony count for eavesdropping.

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