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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 Posted on July 11, 2018 in Uncategorized

Memorial Day is a holiday in the United States when citizens remember the men and women who died while serving in the military, often visiting cemeteries and memorials to honor the fallen soldiers. Unfortunately, this past Memorial Day weekend, a southern Illinois cemetery was vandalized with images of swastikas painted on gravestones just days before Memorial Day. Those facing criminal charges related to vandalism should understand the potential consequences, especially if their activity could be considered a hate crime.

Man Charged With Vandalism and Hate Crimes, Among Other Things

A 34-year-old Glen Carbon man was arrested less than 24 hours after hundreds of swastikas were found to have been painted on multiple graves in Sunset Hill Cemetery and on homes and vehicles in nearby Edwardsville. The man, who lives near the cemetery, is being charged with 14 counts of criminal damage to property, four counts of hate crimes, three counts of institutional vandalism, and one count of violating the Cemetery Protection Act. The man is currently in police custody on two separate bonds of $100,000 each-one for the crimes committed in Glen Carbon and the other for the vandalism in the Edwardsville neighborhood.

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 Posted on July 10, 2018 in Uncategorized

A 22-year-old man was sentenced to two and a half years at the Illinois Department of Corrections for pleading guilty to aggravated street racing. The incident resulted in the death of a 49-year-old man and the injury of his 15-year-old daughter.

The Case

The incident took place in December of 2015 when the man, who was then 20 years old, was racing a 16-year-old boy who collided with the victim and his daughter. According to court transcripts from the proceeding, speeds in the race reached between 110 mph and 120 mph through the residential neighborhood where the crash occurred. The man was originally charged with nine counts of reckless homicide and two counts of aggravated street racing, but instead entered a plea bargain and pleaded guilty to a felony charge of aggravated street racing, which is a Class 4 felony.

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 Posted on July 09, 2018 in Uncategorized

For many of us, the main times we interact with the police is during traffic stops. Most people who have been diving for a few years have been pulled over at least once by police. Often, those who have committed a minor traffic violation, such as driving slightly faster than the speed limit, will only receive a warning. Other times, police will issue a ticket. After asking for the driver’s license, registration, and possibly proof of insurance, police will be watching you and your vehicle closely. The officer may ask if he can take a look around your vehicle. It is important for Illinois residents to know and exercise their rights when it comes to the police searching a vehicle.

Do Not Consent to a Search

Many experts encourage anyone stopped by police for any reason to be respectful and non-threatening. We live in a time where tensions between police and the general public are at an all-time-high and officers are therefore on the lookout for those who might try to hurt them. If you get pulled over by the police, it is recommended that you keep calm and follow the officer’s commands or requests. However, do not be tricked into believing that you must agree to a search if a police officer wants to search your car. The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects citizens from “unreasonable searches or seizures.” In the case of motor vehicles, the officer must have “probable cause” to suspect you are doing something illegal to search your car. Having drugs or other illegal items in plain sight as well as the smell of marijuana seeping out of your car are both situations which would permit a police officer to search your vehicle. If you are arrested, the police automatically have the right to search your vehicle.

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 Posted on July 06, 2018 in Uncategorized

Having a felony conviction on your record is more than just embarrassing. It can prevent you from getting student financial aid, from joining the military, from owning a firearm, from working in some types of jobs, and from being accepted into some types of housing. These effects can be very long-lasting, as most felony convictions remain on your record permanently. In addition, a felony by definition carries a minimum prison term of one year in Illinois, during which time an individual cannot support their family.

Such hardships make it very difficult for people to recover from a felony conviction, to make a fresh start, and to support their families without returning to crime. Recognizing that probation is a better alternative than incarceration for many offenders, Illinois legislators enacted Second Chance Probation, effective in January 2014.

How Second Chance Probation Works

If given a sentence of Second Chance Probation, an individual will be on probation for a minimum of two years, with no prison time. If they successfully complete all of the probation terms, their case will be dismissed, and they will have no felony conviction on their record. However, if they violate any of the probation terms, they will be convicted on the original charge. In addition, if the individual is convicted of a new crime within five years of the dismissal, the court can consider the Second Chance Probation case when deciding the sentence for the new case.

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