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Talk-Line: Charley Boonstra reflects on 9/11 · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

0:00
Speaker 1: We are quarter passed the hour. This is Thursday. It's
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Speaker 1: September the eleventh, the year is twenty twenty five, and
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Speaker 1: it's time for another informational edition of Talkline here at
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Speaker 1: WIXN Radio. Good morning, I'm Steve Marco. It is time
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Speaker 1: for our bi monthly look at news and information from
0:14
Speaker 1: your Lee County State's Attorney's office. This is information from
0:18
Speaker 1: your Lee County court House which comes our way courtesy
0:21
Speaker 1: of our Lee County State's Attorney, not just covering the
0:24
Speaker 1: activity at the courthouse, but beyond that as well. We've
0:28
Speaker 1: got some very interesting information to share with you this
0:30
Speaker 1: morning from the office. And here to share the information
0:32
Speaker 1: is our Lee County State's Attorney. Our good friend Charlie
0:35
Speaker 1: Boonster joins us in the talk Line Spotlight live at
0:38
Speaker 1: the microphones this morning here at wix IN.
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Speaker 2: Good morning, Charlie, Good morning, sir. How are you.
0:41
Speaker 1: I am fine, Thanks for joining us. We always appreciate
0:44
Speaker 1: a visit from our State's attorney. Whenever we can get it.
0:46
Speaker 1: We get the update here on wix IN. And today
0:49
Speaker 1: is the day. Today is kind of a very solemn
0:52
Speaker 1: day across the area. You're going to see a lot
0:54
Speaker 1: of flags at half staff. You're going to see a
0:55
Speaker 1: lot of flags loan across our area today in the
0:59
Speaker 1: way of the September eleventh Patriots Day observance. And you
1:04
Speaker 1: and I were talking off the air, Charlie about you know,
1:07
Speaker 1: what we were doing on September the eleventh of two
1:10
Speaker 1: thousand and one, and you had told me, well, I
1:15
Speaker 1: let you because you know this is guy, do you
1:20
Speaker 1: know this disparage our age? I got to tell you friend,
1:24
Speaker 1: you know, going into this thought. But what were you
1:27
Speaker 1: doing on September the eleventh, twenty oh one.
1:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, sure, in September eleventh, which you know, it felt
1:31
Speaker 3: like yesterday. I was actually in middle school. We had
1:35
Speaker 3: found out that there was an attack on our country,
1:38
Speaker 3: and you know, looking back at the time when it
1:40
Speaker 3: was happening, it's it's it's unique to think about now
1:43
Speaker 3: with all the technology advances. But they got that roller
1:46
Speaker 3: card out with the TV on it, brought it into
1:48
Speaker 3: the classroom so everybody could see what was going on,
1:50
Speaker 3: and we just we sat there and it didn't feel real.
1:54
Speaker 3: It didn't feel like, you know, what we're seeing was
1:56
Speaker 3: actually happening before our eyes, and it felt like a movie.
1:59
Speaker 3: But yeah, it was It was really traumatic. It was
2:03
Speaker 3: it was something that we didn't expect, something we'd never
2:06
Speaker 3: thought we would actually see in our lifetime, you know,
2:08
Speaker 3: coming from a middle school age. And then you know,
2:11
Speaker 3: kind of talked about it afterwards, talked about what the
2:13
Speaker 3: building significance, were talking about what this is going to
2:17
Speaker 3: mean for our country moving forward, and it was it
2:20
Speaker 3: was a pretty crazy event when you look back on
2:23
Speaker 3: it and seeing what was happening.
2:24
Speaker 1: Was was the entire school day when you were attending
2:27
Speaker 1: in middle school? Was that we entired in school day
2:29
Speaker 1: kind of encompassed in this though, Charlie, I mean, did
2:31
Speaker 1: you I mean, did you kind of leave everything else
2:35
Speaker 1: on the.
2:36
Speaker 3: I mean, we tried to focus on things that were
2:39
Speaker 3: going on. At the end of the hour, it we're
2:41
Speaker 3: just not gonna be able to do this, And it
2:43
Speaker 3: was really just a matter of just coming together and
2:46
Speaker 3: and focusing on what was happening in New York, happening
2:48
Speaker 3: in DC and in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. And uh, yeah,
2:54
Speaker 3: it really took up all the day and the weeks
2:56
Speaker 3: to come, just kind of thinking about how the impact
2:59
Speaker 3: was going to have in our country.
3:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the obviously the pictures you know of the
3:04
Speaker 1: burning Trade Center, the World Trade Center, and the fall
3:09
Speaker 1: of the Trade Center. Obviously it took Center station. Yeah,
3:12
Speaker 1: there was, there was a tragedy in the Pentagon, tragedy
3:14
Speaker 1: in Pennsylvania, but those areas were not as you know,
3:20
Speaker 1: again again centers pointed, as was the Trade Center because
3:25
Speaker 1: you actually saw the ground zero. Yeah, you actually and
3:28
Speaker 1: you actually saw the aircraft flying in to the World
3:32
Speaker 1: Trade Center buildings. You didn't see it because obviously there
3:36
Speaker 1: was no camera focused on the Pentagon until it actually happened.
3:41
Speaker 1: And the same goes for Pennsylvania. Nobody knew exactly where
3:45
Speaker 1: that plane was off to and and and there's still
3:47
Speaker 1: questions about that even to.
3:49
Speaker 2: Today to pick up the piece exactly.
3:52
Speaker 1: Exactly where that aircraft was actually headed to. But it
3:55
Speaker 1: was obviously you know, involved in the terrorist attack and
4:00
Speaker 1: went down in Pennsylvania. So yeah, very interesting that we
4:04
Speaker 1: get the spotlight from our state's attorney, middle schools, students
4:09
Speaker 1: all right back in two thousand and one. Very interesting
4:11
Speaker 1: though that that you get the again focus on that event,
4:17
Speaker 1: as did everybody, you know, obviously across our nation was
4:21
Speaker 1: put on alert, and you know, schools were included, obviously
4:25
Speaker 1: probably schools were included in this alert type of situation.
4:30
Speaker 1: You know that that took place and we were you know,
4:33
Speaker 1: told to stay inside, not do anything, you know, as
4:36
Speaker 1: far as travel things like that, especially airline travel that
4:40
Speaker 1: day into the you know, the latter portion of that
4:43
Speaker 1: a month of September, there was really you know, no travel.
4:47
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, it changed everything. And even even now when
4:50
Speaker 3: you look at it, the things that are being rolled
4:51
Speaker 3: back for the security stuff, when we talk about the
4:53
Speaker 3: shoes being taken off everything, I mean, we've come almost
4:56
Speaker 3: twenty five years now and that that's.
4:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's remarkable, very good. And again we get our
5:00
Speaker 1: reflection from Charlie Boonster on September the eleventh here at Wixam.
5:04
Speaker 1: Well to the business at hand, we need to discuss
5:07
Speaker 1: activity at the Lee County State's Attorney's Office and that
5:09
Speaker 1: usually means at the beginning of our program an update
5:12
Speaker 1: of cases, Charlie, that you can bring us up to
5:14
Speaker 1: date what you can as far as you know what
5:17
Speaker 1: is happening at the Lee County Courthouse.
5:19
Speaker 2: Yeah.
5:19
Speaker 3: So, I think the last time we spoke, right at
5:21
Speaker 3: the beginning of July, we've closed several felony cases. We've
5:24
Speaker 3: closed about fifty felony cases since that last interview and
5:28
Speaker 3: filings for felony cases. At this point, we're at about
5:30
Speaker 3: one hundred and ninety eight felony cases so far this year.
5:34
Speaker 3: For notable cases that we've had come since that last interview,
5:38
Speaker 3: we had people in the state of Illinois versus Ryan Roe,
5:40
Speaker 3: which is a possession of meth case in a criminal
5:42
Speaker 3: treust pass case. He received two years in the Illinois
5:44
Speaker 3: Department of Corrections. People versus Seth Anderson, a possession of
5:48
Speaker 3: weapon by a fellon, received two years in the Department
5:50
Speaker 3: of Corrections.
5:51
Speaker 2: People versu.
5:52
Speaker 3: Doug Helfrick, a violation of Sex Offender Registration Act received
5:56
Speaker 3: three years in the Department of Corrections.
5:58
Speaker 2: People vis.
6:00
Speaker 3: Gascoyne domestic battery received three years in the Department of Corrections.
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Speaker 3: People versus Josh Garcia violation of a sex Vender Registration Act.
6:08
Speaker 3: He received four years in the Department of Corrections. People
6:11
Speaker 3: versus Loura Murray, which was a burglary case, received six
6:15
Speaker 3: years in the Department of Corrections. People versus Cody Rhads
6:18
Speaker 3: possession of meth with intend to deliver six years in
6:21
Speaker 3: the Department of Corrections. And then people versus Nicholas Davis,
6:24
Speaker 3: armed habitual criminal received seven years in the Department of Corrections.
6:28
Speaker 3: Those are just a number of the cases that I
6:29
Speaker 3: bring to highlight. Obviously I talk about there's fifty fell
6:32
Speaker 3: any cases that we've talked about and closed over the
6:34
Speaker 3: last couple of months. There's more that could be discussed,
6:37
Speaker 3: but those are just some of the highlights of it.
6:38
Speaker 3: We have trials that are going into December. Continue to
6:42
Speaker 3: work hand in hand with our law enforcement agencies around
6:45
Speaker 3: Lee County, with the advocates around here in court services.
6:49
Speaker 3: I'm seeing a lot of changes with the Dixon Police
6:52
Speaker 3: Department in Lee County Sheriff's Office. Not bad change, it's
6:55
Speaker 3: just changes as in opportunities for growth. So it's been good.
6:59
Speaker 3: We've been developing and making sure we're going hand in
7:01
Speaker 3: hand moving into the future.
7:03
Speaker 1: Right like. So again, as Charlie mentioned, he could go
7:06
Speaker 1: in depth on more cases, but those are kind of
7:08
Speaker 1: the highlighted areas and they are areas of you know,
7:12
Speaker 1: importance that we need to you know, we always focus
7:15
Speaker 1: on domestic violence, sexual assault. Again, those areas A burglary
7:22
Speaker 1: case six years for a burglary.
7:24
Speaker 3: Correct and it wasn't just a normal burglary either it
7:27
Speaker 3: was just it was actually a retail theft that happened
7:29
Speaker 3: here at the Walgreens and Snyder's. And yeah, we charged
7:33
Speaker 3: it as a burglar because it was very clear there
7:34
Speaker 3: was people coming from Chicago Land area coming out here
7:38
Speaker 3: specifically to steal from our businesses here, and we're we're
7:42
Speaker 3: not going to tolerate it. So we charged it as
7:43
Speaker 3: a burglary and I received.
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Speaker 1: Six years and you know, the punishment adheres to the crime.
7:49
Speaker 1: And as Charlie mentioned, some very interesting highlighted cases from
7:53
Speaker 1: our Lee County States Attorney in his business at the
7:56
Speaker 1: Leecounty courtA. So obviously we always thank you Charlie for
7:58
Speaker 1: what he can share with us as far as these
8:01
Speaker 1: court cases are concerned. A busy time as always, which is,
8:05
Speaker 1: you know, kind of a shame that we have to
8:07
Speaker 1: say that, because we'd like to see, you know, not
8:10
Speaker 1: being busy at the Lee County State's Attorney's office, but
8:12
Speaker 1: nonetheless taking care of business at our Lee County State's
8:14
Speaker 1: Attorney's office with cases again through the Lee County Courthouse.
8:19
Speaker 1: Charlie wanted to talk to you know and get your
8:22
Speaker 1: opinion as we move into our news time at the
8:25
Speaker 1: bottom of the hour concerning the cashless bail issue that
8:31
Speaker 1: has again cropped up again, not just in the state
8:35
Speaker 1: of Illinois, but now it has gone to a federal level.
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Speaker 1: President Trump actually addressed the cashless bail problem a few
8:43
Speaker 1: weeks ago in I believe it was a doors into
8:46
Speaker 1: d c U if I'm not mistaken that that. You know,
8:50
Speaker 1: he wanted to see that cashless bail situation at stopped.
8:58
Speaker 1: He wanted to see it abolished. And now we're starting
9:03
Speaker 1: to see maybe a trickle down effect. I mean, is
9:05
Speaker 1: it going to.
9:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, there certainly could be an effect from my understanding,
9:09
Speaker 3: you know, with executive orders as it goes with what
9:12
Speaker 3: he's trying to do, He's honing in on the financial
9:15
Speaker 3: aspect for any of the jurisdictions that are instituting a
9:19
Speaker 3: cashle spale system. You're seeing this time and time again
9:22
Speaker 3: right now with all of the executive orders that he's
9:25
Speaker 3: signed into practice right now that there's a lot of
9:29
Speaker 3: lawsuits that are coming from it. There seems to be
9:31
Speaker 3: a trend with the circuit court level or the district
9:34
Speaker 3: court level where they end up issuing injunctions or siding
9:38
Speaker 3: with the individuals that are filing the lawsuits and then
9:40
Speaker 3: it ends up going through the appellate process into the
9:42
Speaker 3: Supreme Court, where they tend to be siding with the President.
9:46
Speaker 3: So who knows how this is going to shake out.
9:49
Speaker 3: As it stands right now, it has very little effect
9:51
Speaker 3: on Illinois in terms of what we're doing in our processes.
9:55
Speaker 3: Perhaps there will be something down the road with our
9:57
Speaker 3: legislators and our governor that are going to side that
10:00
Speaker 3: based on the financial hardship that may come from this.
10:02
Speaker 3: If they do lose something at the federal level they
10:04
Speaker 3: want to address it. It doesn't seem like they're going
10:06
Speaker 3: to have an appetite as far as I'm concerned when
10:08
Speaker 3: it comes to it. But no, right now, right now,
10:11
Speaker 3: we're just status quo right here until something more happens
10:14
Speaker 3: at our state level and.
10:16
Speaker 1: The situation then remains, as you mentioned, status quo that
10:18
Speaker 1: remains the same. We're seeing an increased workload for the
10:22
Speaker 1: state's attorney's office. We're seeing more costs because of this situation.
10:27
Speaker 3: Correct, We're seeing repeated cases that are coming through people
10:30
Speaker 3: that are releasing on conditions and then end up picked
10:32
Speaker 3: up again because they shouldn't have been released on conditions,
10:34
Speaker 3: and you know, it has the negative effect that we've
10:36
Speaker 3: talked about before, where if you did have a cash
10:38
Speaker 3: in place, a cash bail in place, those people would
10:41
Speaker 3: have stayed in there and.
10:41
Speaker 2: They would not have actually been released.
10:45
Speaker 3: And the vice versa could have been that they would
10:47
Speaker 3: have been released, they would have been able to post
10:49
Speaker 3: the bail, but instead they're just detained in jail without
10:52
Speaker 3: the bail. So it flips both ways. There's a double
10:55
Speaker 3: edged sword when it.
10:55
Speaker 1: Comes to exactly the hardship you know what I'm being told,
10:59
Speaker 1: you know, the reasons is why we have this mainly
11:01
Speaker 1: in places the hardships on those that have created that,
11:06
Speaker 1: first of all, committed a criminal act are hard to
11:09
Speaker 1: you know, to come up with the bank yeah money,
11:11
Speaker 1: you know. And this is kind of a head scratcher
11:13
Speaker 1: for me. I guess it is because you've you've you've
11:17
Speaker 1: committed a criminal act, sure and you should it's.
11:20
Speaker 2: A surety to make sure that you come back for.
11:21
Speaker 1: Quote yeah, and you should be confined or at least
11:26
Speaker 1: you know, put in, you know, into a cost situation
11:29
Speaker 1: where you know, after you've committed a criminal act, you
11:31
Speaker 1: should pay for.
11:32
Speaker 2: Your sure again.
11:34
Speaker 3: And I don't want to, you know, speak for law
11:37
Speaker 3: enforcement or the courts, or or whatever it may be,
11:39
Speaker 3: but I think there is an overwhelming feeling across the
11:43
Speaker 3: board that I don't think anybody is really necessarily against
11:47
Speaker 3: doing away with cash bail together. What we're against is
11:51
Speaker 3: how much our hands are tied to be able to
11:53
Speaker 3: hold somebody if we want to. I mean, the judges,
11:56
Speaker 3: they'd like to be able to. Again, not trying to
11:59
Speaker 3: speak for them, but the judges would like to be
12:00
Speaker 3: able to, even if it was an offense that's not
12:02
Speaker 3: enumerated by the statute, hold somebody if they know that
12:05
Speaker 3: person's not coming back here.
12:06
Speaker 1: Yes, are we in your experience now, since we've had
12:11
Speaker 1: this in place and it has been for some time now,
12:16
Speaker 1: have you noticed a hardship of a people putting up
12:19
Speaker 1: I mean, have you seen this you know in your experience.
12:23
Speaker 3: A hardship for the bail portion of it, it comes
12:27
Speaker 3: and goes. I'd like to say that Lee County is
12:30
Speaker 3: has been at least since I've been here, at least
12:33
Speaker 3: the ten last ten years or so, has been really
12:35
Speaker 3: good about not just holding somebody because they can hold somebody,
12:38
Speaker 3: and not focusing on some of the issues that you're
12:40
Speaker 3: seeing in Cook County where it was people are rotting
12:42
Speaker 3: in jail waiting for their justice. No, we were releasing
12:47
Speaker 3: people that we had evaluated and realized that they could
12:51
Speaker 3: be on conditions. It was a common sense approach. It was,
12:54
Speaker 3: you know, we talk about the type of clientele that
12:58
Speaker 3: are coming through the court system. We're familiar with them,
13:00
Speaker 3: our friends or neighbors, the people that we come across
13:02
Speaker 3: every day. We know which ones can be let out,
13:05
Speaker 3: which ones can't. We look at ties to the community.
13:08
Speaker 3: If we have somebody that's passing through from Kentucky or
13:11
Speaker 3: from North Dakota or whatever it may be, and they
13:14
Speaker 3: don't have ties to this community, chances are we're probably
13:16
Speaker 3: not going to see them again, and we'd like to
13:18
Speaker 3: be able to make sure that we keep them here
13:20
Speaker 3: until their case is resolved. So that's what the problem
13:22
Speaker 3: is that we have with the cashle spale system that
13:25
Speaker 3: we have in place right now through the Safety i
13:26
Speaker 3: Can Pre Trial Fairness Act, is that we can't finish
13:29
Speaker 3: a case because it ends up going into warrant status
13:32
Speaker 3: and then we don't have them picked up and brought
13:33
Speaker 3: here to be able to do so.
13:35
Speaker 1: And now it's being looked at again an eye out
13:39
Speaker 1: at the federal level. As we talked about earlier, it's
13:41
Speaker 1: starting to now take a federal direction, you know, as
13:46
Speaker 1: far as what we can do to alleviate this problem
13:49
Speaker 1: that we've been talking about for many, many reports, many
13:53
Speaker 1: many reports. With Charlie bon Strange, State's attorney from Lee County.
13:56
Speaker 1: We're going to take a break at the bottom of
13:57
Speaker 1: the hour. When we come back, Jelly has some very
13:59
Speaker 1: interesting information that he wants to talk about, including the
14:03
Speaker 1: teaching of a class, and we're going to talk to
14:05
Speaker 1: that about with our Lee County States Attorney. Charlie Booster
14:09
Speaker 1: joins us in the talk line Spotlight, First News, First
14:11
Speaker 1: Update with Brandon Clark at the bottom of the hour.
14:13
Speaker 1: Stay with us theeks we continue our conversation with our
14:18
Speaker 1: Lee County State's Attorney. Charlie Boonstra is lied with us
14:20
Speaker 1: this morning for our expanded version of talk Line today
14:23
Speaker 1: here at wixent and sir, we thank you so very much,
14:25
Speaker 1: first of all for allowing us the extra time to
14:27
Speaker 1: chat here so well. We always have a full plate
14:31
Speaker 1: with inviting our Lee County State's attorney to join us
14:34
Speaker 1: today on WIX and we do have a lot of
14:37
Speaker 1: information to share and you know, getting away from the
14:42
Speaker 1: issues obviously that have to concern us in the last
14:45
Speaker 1: half hour as far as cases and Bayless Bayless crimes,
14:50
Speaker 1: you know, cash bail situation and all that. We wanted
14:53
Speaker 1: to focus on some of your activity within the Lake
14:56
Speaker 1: County States Attorney's Office and some of that activity first
15:00
Speaker 1: of all, the public Defender's office. Talk about that a
15:03
Speaker 1: little bit.
15:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, So the County Board just last month passed a
15:06
Speaker 3: resolution that we'll be making the public defender position a
15:09
Speaker 3: full time position. For quite a while now, it's been
15:12
Speaker 3: a part time position. So now it's going to move
15:15
Speaker 3: to that full time position where the presiding Judge will
15:19
Speaker 3: select a full time public defender and there will probably
15:23
Speaker 3: be assistant public defender goes along with that as well.
15:25
Speaker 3: So Bob Thompson, who has been the public defender for
15:29
Speaker 3: our county for quite a while now, has been a
15:32
Speaker 3: part time position. Doug Laith is assistant public defender as well.
15:35
Speaker 3: Bob's been has been doing a great job. He's been
15:38
Speaker 3: a great asset to Lee County. He's been here for decades.
15:41
Speaker 3: The county has been fortunate to have him for as
15:43
Speaker 3: long as we have. He's been a fierce defender of
15:45
Speaker 3: the accused and maintained a positive working environment with at
15:48
Speaker 3: least my office the court system many times, and I've
15:52
Speaker 3: been in court systems before where that system can be contentious,
15:56
Speaker 3: a very contentious system between the public Defender and States
15:58
Speaker 3: Trains office, and we have a good working relationship where
16:03
Speaker 3: we can agree to disagree at the end of the
16:04
Speaker 3: day and move on and nobody's gonna have hard feelings
16:06
Speaker 3: on that or anything. So I'm hoping to continue that
16:09
Speaker 3: with the next person, whoever the presiding Judge decides on.
16:12
Speaker 3: I'm confident that she's going to keep that position as
16:15
Speaker 3: a positive place in the Lee County court system, and
16:19
Speaker 3: hopefully we'll find that out in the next coming months
16:21
Speaker 3: as that selection process begins. But hopefully, you know, Bob's
16:25
Speaker 3: gonna be retiring, I believe March or April of next year,
16:29
Speaker 3: so it'll be in position before.
16:30
Speaker 2: Then, all right.
16:31
Speaker 1: So again we'll look forward to some news in that
16:34
Speaker 1: regard from our Lee County State's Attorney in the offices
16:37
Speaker 1: obviously that will be connected with that particular move through
16:41
Speaker 1: Lee County. That is our our Lee County Public Defender's office.
16:44
Speaker 1: You had Morley County News yeah.
16:46
Speaker 3: So there's also a zoning hearing officer that the Zoning
16:49
Speaker 3: Board of Appeals, the County Board had decided to move
16:52
Speaker 3: away from and go to one person zoning hearing officer position.
16:55
Speaker 3: So we've been working through that process for a couple
16:58
Speaker 3: months now to try to find somebody that was going
17:00
Speaker 3: to take on that role. We actually had one person
17:02
Speaker 3: that applied for it, was given the position, and they withdrew,
17:05
Speaker 3: so we.
17:05
Speaker 2: Were back to the drawing board then.
17:07
Speaker 3: But I'm happy to announce that my first assistant who
17:10
Speaker 3: retired in May, is going to actually come back and
17:12
Speaker 3: take over that role as a part time position to
17:14
Speaker 3: help out the county yet again.
17:15
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, do we have the name, Yeah, Brian
17:18
Speaker 1: Brim Okay, yep, okay, Brian, So he is going to
17:21
Speaker 1: become that official through the Lee County Board then, yeah, okay,
17:24
Speaker 1: very good. So again welcoming heh back into the fold,
17:27
Speaker 1: so to speak. That's a very interesting move. So we
17:31
Speaker 1: have some moves being made in offices in areas of
17:35
Speaker 1: our Lee County area, not only you know, with the judicials,
17:40
Speaker 1: but with the County Board as well, and we thank
17:44
Speaker 1: Charlie for reporting on that this morning here at won
17:47
Speaker 1: exam talk about Now, I understand that you've been involved
17:50
Speaker 1: in some teaching.
17:50
Speaker 3: Is that right you want to Yeah, So every once
17:52
Speaker 3: in a while, I'm involved in some teaching at this court.
17:54
Speaker 3: Different courses we talked about. I think it was maybe
17:56
Speaker 3: last summer I went down and spoke to entire group
17:59
Speaker 3: of IDEOC investigators about how we perform our investigations and
18:03
Speaker 3: prosecutions up here in Lee County. We went down to
18:05
Speaker 3: Springfield to do that. Recently, I went over to Whiteside
18:09
Speaker 3: County to teach a use of force class. So I
18:12
Speaker 3: got to sit down with law enforcement officers and discuss
18:15
Speaker 3: certain scenarios and expectations when it comes to the use
18:18
Speaker 3: of deadly force when either arresting somebody or when they're
18:22
Speaker 3: following up on some type of safety issue that's at hand.
18:26
Speaker 3: So it was good to sit down with multiple law
18:28
Speaker 3: enforcement officers different jurisdictions, mostly around the Sauk Valley region,
18:33
Speaker 3: and kind of go over step by step talk about
18:36
Speaker 3: case law that's current right now, things that they can
18:38
Speaker 3: expect or things that they need to look out for
18:41
Speaker 3: in terms of when you can use deadly force or
18:43
Speaker 3: not use deadly force in scenarios that will come up
18:46
Speaker 3: involving vehicles or firearms or other dangerous weapons like knives
18:51
Speaker 3: and such as that. A lot of good dialogue that
18:54
Speaker 3: happened during that, and I was I was happy to
18:56
Speaker 3: be a part of it. Jeff Reagan, who is an
18:59
Speaker 3: officer from the x Police Department, organized that and he
19:01
Speaker 3: asked me to come speak on behalf of their MTU process,
19:05
Speaker 3: and it was it was a good turnout. I was
19:07
Speaker 3: happy to do it and hopefully they leaned a lot
19:09
Speaker 3: from it.
19:10
Speaker 1: Well, you know exactly, and and and in this day
19:12
Speaker 1: and age, there's so much that has to be taken
19:15
Speaker 1: account for. And uh, you know, with law enforcement officials,
19:19
Speaker 1: you know, you got to follow the guidelines. You still
19:22
Speaker 1: have to follow you know, certain certain you know, rules
19:24
Speaker 1: of the road, so to speak. And you know, it
19:26
Speaker 1: seems like more, you know, every day, it just seems
19:31
Speaker 1: like there's more that comes aboard that needs to be
19:34
Speaker 1: you know, taken in and taught, you know, at these types.
19:37
Speaker 3: Of and you have to look at this from a perspective.
19:39
Speaker 3: And any time that it's going to go through a
19:41
Speaker 3: court system as to whether or not deadly force was appropriate,
19:43
Speaker 3: they have to look at it from the perspective of
19:45
Speaker 3: what a reasonable officer in that situation use the force
19:49
Speaker 3: that was there. Are they presented with deadly force. If
19:51
Speaker 3: they're not presented with deadly force, it's going to be
19:52
Speaker 3: a whole new hurdle they have to get over. And
19:55
Speaker 3: it's just these steps that you have to go through
19:57
Speaker 3: to try to de escalate a situation. But sometimes you're
20:00
Speaker 3: meeting that deadly force right away and you can't de
20:03
Speaker 3: escalate it.
20:03
Speaker 2: You're just meeting the force that's presented to Yes, you know.
20:07
Speaker 1: You try to be as transparent as you can't. You can't.
20:10
Speaker 1: You can't at some time because that you just mentioned.
20:13
Speaker 1: The time factor is such because in certain situations you
20:17
Speaker 1: just don't have.
20:17
Speaker 3: And we're very fortunate with law enforcement that we have
20:19
Speaker 3: in this area that the Dickson Police Department, Lee County
20:22
Speaker 3: Sheriff's Office, and Boy Police Department ic P troopers that
20:25
Speaker 3: come through here. They are all very well aware of
20:28
Speaker 3: what they can and cannot do, and they've been very
20:31
Speaker 3: mindful of it. There are times where I've had cases
20:33
Speaker 3: come across my desk that I've said, they very clearly
20:36
Speaker 3: could have used deadly force the scenario, but they used restraint.
20:39
Speaker 3: They did something that I think if anybody else that
20:42
Speaker 3: was given that situation may not have used restraint, and
20:45
Speaker 3: I think they'd be commended for that well.
20:47
Speaker 1: And again, teaching and educating, informing obviously, you know from
20:53
Speaker 1: your office is key. I think you know in this
20:56
Speaker 1: area and early County States Attorney was involved in some
21:00
Speaker 1: and training and education with law enforcement here. Recently, Shining Star,
21:06
Speaker 1: I understand that there's been a.
21:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, so recently the Shining Star Board elected me as
21:15
Speaker 3: president of the Shining Star Board. I was humbled by
21:17
Speaker 3: their support. Grateful to continue to support Shining Star however
21:20
Speaker 3: I can, and yeah, we're looking forward to the next
21:23
Speaker 3: chapter and what we're going to be able to do. Also,
21:27
Speaker 3: as of recently, Shining Star received the Civic Leader of
21:30
Speaker 3: the Year award from the organ Chamber of Commerce, and
21:34
Speaker 3: I think it's it's very well deserved. And what they
21:36
Speaker 3: said in their presentation was their work is quiet, but
21:40
Speaker 3: it is powerful. And I think that so often we
21:42
Speaker 3: forget all of the things that Shining Star is doing
21:44
Speaker 3: over there with counseling, forensic interviews, advocating all of the
21:48
Speaker 3: things that they're doing, and the entire team over there
21:51
Speaker 3: needs to be commended for that as well. There's so
21:53
Speaker 3: many services they're offering, and they've been quite busy lately
21:57
Speaker 3: even doing all those things. So it was nice to
21:59
Speaker 3: see that they're being right.
22:00
Speaker 1: And congratulations your appointment as pres president. So you're kind
22:05
Speaker 1: of leading the way in this entity, you know, which
22:09
Speaker 1: obviously you feel strongly, you know.
22:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, we're trying to do as best we can
22:12
Speaker 3: to help them out. I think I've said this several times,
22:15
Speaker 3: and I don't mean to beat a dead horse on it,
22:17
Speaker 3: but it is such a wonderful organization that does so
22:21
Speaker 3: much for this community that without them, I think there
22:23
Speaker 3: would be a huge gap when it comes to abuse cases,
22:26
Speaker 3: there'd be a huge gap when it comes to victims
22:28
Speaker 3: of abuse becoming survivors, and just the amount of services
22:32
Speaker 3: they provide.
22:32
Speaker 1: Right, and again, we have a new president of the
22:36
Speaker 1: Shining Star Board kind of leading the way in my
22:40
Speaker 1: regards with Shining Star. It is a you're right, it
22:45
Speaker 1: is an important organization. It's a needed organization. It's one
22:48
Speaker 1: of those organizations that unless you're directly involved with it
22:53
Speaker 1: at a certain time, you don't know exactly what they
22:57
Speaker 1: do because you're not directly involved with it, and unless
23:00
Speaker 1: you are, you would be amazed. I think if you
23:03
Speaker 1: were put in you know, that area and and and
23:06
Speaker 1: shown exactly what they do, a lot of people just
23:10
Speaker 1: don't know.
23:11
Speaker 2: And that's why I say that the work that they
23:13
Speaker 2: do is so quiet that.
23:14
Speaker 3: They're not showing about it, that they're not going out
23:16
Speaker 3: there and flaunting anything, but everything that they're doing, everything
23:20
Speaker 3: they're touching when it comes to abuse cases and advocating,
23:25
Speaker 3: it's paramount.
23:27
Speaker 2: It's everything that we needed in this.
23:29
Speaker 1: Well, and like you mentioned, very important to your office,
23:31
Speaker 1: you know, because there would be a major gap, you know,
23:35
Speaker 1: as far as the system is concerned. If we didn't
23:38
Speaker 1: have that shining star effort to helping out in that regard,
23:42
Speaker 1: anything else to pass.
23:43
Speaker 3: So we are also working on a juvenile reimbursement grant.
23:48
Speaker 3: There's a company that we will work with. It's a
23:50
Speaker 3: JBI Justice Benefits, Inc. In What we're trying to do
23:54
Speaker 3: is with the leadership of Judge Eckert in the fifteen
23:58
Speaker 3: Traditional Circuit, but mostly here in the account is being
24:01
Speaker 3: able to use the service to find federal grants to
24:05
Speaker 3: help for the reimbursement of juvenile abuse and neglect cases,
24:08
Speaker 3: juvenile delinquency cases. Anybody that's playing a part in there.
24:11
Speaker 3: So if you have guardian at items that are appointed
24:13
Speaker 3: on those cases, or attorneys appointed to represent mom and dad,
24:17
Speaker 3: or whatever it may be, we can get reimbursement to
24:19
Speaker 3: pay for those fees. It doesn't cost the county anything
24:22
Speaker 3: to engage in this service, and whatever is found by
24:26
Speaker 3: the JBI, they retain twenty two percent as an administrative feed.
24:29
Speaker 3: But we're getting money back to the county that we
24:31
Speaker 3: otherwise would not be receiving.
24:33
Speaker 2: So something we're working on that.
24:34
Speaker 3: Hopefully we'll be assigning here in the next month and
24:36
Speaker 3: then getting some of the reimbursement.
24:38
Speaker 1: Starting very good, so we'll continue to follow the progress
24:41
Speaker 1: of that as we move along with the Lee County
24:43
Speaker 1: State's Attorney's Office here at Wikes. And always a pleasure
24:45
Speaker 1: having you on board, sir. It's always, again an interesting
24:48
Speaker 1: time that we get to share with our Lee County
24:50
Speaker 1: States Attorney in many different facets of law enforcement and
24:54
Speaker 1: judicial here at Wykes. And we thank you for your
24:57
Speaker 1: visit today. Thank you for having me all right, Lee
24:59
Speaker 1: County States Attorney Til Boomstraw on our air here at
25:01
Speaker 1: WI