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Talk-Line: Ogle County State's Attorney Mike Rock on cashless bail · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

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  Speaker 1: Our quarter past the hour. This is Wednesday, It's August
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  Speaker 1: twenty seven, the year is twenty twenty five, and it's
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  Speaker 1: time for another informational edition of talk Line here at
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  Speaker 1: w i XN Radio. Good morning, I'm Steve Marco. Time
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  Speaker 1: to touch base with our friends from the Ogle County
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  Speaker 1: State's Attorney's office. And who better to handle the news
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  Speaker 1: of the day in that office than our Ogle County
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  Speaker 1: State's Attorney. He's live with us by telephone from the
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  Speaker 1: Oregon Courthouse today. Let's meet and greet Mike Rock. My
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  Speaker 1: good morning to you.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning hear you.
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  Speaker 1: I am fine, certain, thanks for joining. It's been a while,
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  Speaker 1: it's been a while. We've we've got to get things
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  Speaker 1: caught up to date with our good friend Mike Rock
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  Speaker 1: from Ogle County. And Mike, we're going to start today
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  Speaker 1: as we usually do, with an update of activity within
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  Speaker 1: the courthouse. Can you bring us up to date as
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  Speaker 1: we get started in our talk line chat today, Mike,
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  Speaker 1: with the cases that you can talk about either resolved, pending, happening,
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  Speaker 1: what's happening in Ogle County?
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  Speaker 2: I definitely can so right right now, and I don't
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  Speaker 2: know that you and I have actually spoken about this
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  Speaker 2: in the past. I know we've kind of touched on it,
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  Speaker 2: but just so your your listener's no in in Ogle
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  Speaker 2: County right now. Uh. In my office we have eight
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  Speaker 2: full time employees and of myself, we have a part
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  Speaker 2: timer lawyer comes in, so we've got four full time
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  Speaker 2: lawyers in addition to myself. And give you a comparison
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  Speaker 2: zone my Toll office, we you know, we have eight
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  Speaker 2: full time employees to give you comparison. In Boone County,
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  Speaker 2: a similar size county is Ogel. They do file slightly
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  Speaker 2: more cases per year, but they've got fourteen employees. They're
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  Speaker 2: working in clean seven full time assistant state's attorneys, so
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  Speaker 2: they have eight total accounting Uh their they're state's attorney
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  Speaker 2: and that kind of plays into you know what you
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  Speaker 2: and I talked about before we came on live here.
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  Speaker 2: As as far as numbers this year, what we consider
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  Speaker 2: to be the most serious cases in office, every case
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  Speaker 2: we take seriously, of course, but the felony cases, which
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  Speaker 2: are the cases that affect the community the most, they
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  Speaker 2: are up almost thirty additional felonies through at the same
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  Speaker 2: time as last year. The numbers were slightly up last
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  Speaker 2: year as well, so we've gone up. In a typical
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  Speaker 2: year in Oval County, you're looking at about two hundred
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  Speaker 2: and twenty fellonies in a year being filed, and we're
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  Speaker 2: tracking closer to two fifty this year. The uys are
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  Speaker 2: tracking about the same, but the domestic violence cases are
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  Speaker 2: up as well. Those are unfortunate numbers, you know right
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  Speaker 2: now and given me and you know I'll talk about this.
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  Speaker 2: I'm sure you and I have spoken up the Preachell
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  Speaker 2: Fairness Act a lot, which is that cancels fale that
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  Speaker 2: has put a lot more up front paperwork that has
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  Speaker 2: to be done before the case can even get into
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  Speaker 2: court for the first time. And it's made the Pretchell
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  Speaker 2: Fairness Acts probably added at least two hours every day
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  Speaker 2: to at least one attorney's work in a couple of
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  Speaker 2: my administrative assistants. So it's substantial amount of extra time
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  Speaker 2: that's got to be put in just to even get
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  Speaker 2: the cases to court every day. So that has been
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  Speaker 2: a burn on my office. But you know, I've talked
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  Speaker 2: about it. I'm very lucky I've got for full time
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  Speaker 2: assistant state's attorneys who all have a wealth of experience
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  Speaker 2: and are all capable of handling handling homicide cases, which
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  Speaker 2: is great because unfortunately the caseload in Ogle County has
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  Speaker 2: become more applies to you. And I've spoken about the
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  Speaker 2: two homicide takings that we've closed in the last year
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  Speaker 2: and a half. We tried Matthew Plote and he was
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  Speaker 2: due to a natural life sentence. There was a double
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  Speaker 2: murder out of Mount Morris. There was a murder out
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  Speaker 2: of Rochelle where a young woman was murdered and that
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  Speaker 2: that particularly kind of pled guilty and took thirty five
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  Speaker 2: years in the Apartment of Corrections, of which that is
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  Speaker 2: one hundred percent sentenced, so he will serve the full
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  Speaker 2: thirty five percent. And then we have we have a
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  Speaker 2: new and I can't recall if we spoke about this
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  Speaker 2: last time I was on, but we had a new
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  Speaker 2: murder out of Mount Morris. It's pending. That's that Derek Swanland,
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  Speaker 2: and that case is actually up this this afternoon. That
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  Speaker 2: case is just basically got going and we followed that
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  Speaker 2: in April, so the defense is going through all the
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  Speaker 2: paperwork at this point. And then we we have a
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  Speaker 2: very old case that's been pending prosecuting people versus Dwayne Meyer,
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  Speaker 2: and that is set for jury trial that is set
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  Speaker 2: to begin the first Monday in January, and that is
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  Speaker 2: set to take the whole month, so myself and two
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  Speaker 2: of my assistants will be prosecuting that case for that month.
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  Speaker 2: We are currently set October eighth versus a final status
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  Speaker 2: to make sure all the witnesses are lined up. And
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  Speaker 2: then we have People versus Sarah Sophrantic where we've allegend
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  Speaker 2: she killed her young son, and that case we had
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  Speaker 2: appealed to ruling by the trial judge where the trial
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  Speaker 2: judge has kept out some of our evidence that we
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  Speaker 2: wanted to use a trial, and we've just heard within
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  Speaker 2: the last week the Appella Court did reverse the trial
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  Speaker 2: judge on some of the issues. It's going to allow
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  Speaker 2: more of our evidence in that we wanted. We still
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  Speaker 2: think that there was even more of it it should
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  Speaker 2: have been allowed in, but that's where we stand. That
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  Speaker 2: case is coming back. We anticipate that case being jurisdiction
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  Speaker 2: of that case again sometime next week, so that one
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  Speaker 2: will be coming back as well, and we'll be looking
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  Speaker 2: at pubably trial date on that I would hope sometime
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  Speaker 2: early next year as well.
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  Speaker 1: A busy docket, fortunately, a big case going on a
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  Speaker 1: busy docket, Mike, A busy docket. And to be fair,
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  Speaker 1: I agree with you. I agree completely with your comparison
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  Speaker 1: of counties. Just first pointing it out, I know that
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  Speaker 1: really should be you know, something to take it into account.
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  Speaker 1: The fact that again from county to county, Ogle County,
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  Speaker 1: and again, as Mike pointed out, you know, just to
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  Speaker 1: be fair, he compared, you know, the Ogle County staff
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  Speaker 1: to another county in our northern Illinois area which practically
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  Speaker 1: has double the staff, I mean, really double the staff
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  Speaker 1: of of what you are carrying in Ogle County. A
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  Speaker 1: smaller county, yes, by physical but you know obviously you know,
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  Speaker 1: with their urban areas and all. But still, Mike, uh,
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  Speaker 1: I think it's interesting that you point out the comparisons, uh,
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  Speaker 1: that your county, your Ogle County staff really has again
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  Speaker 1: stepped up, first of all, and it sounds like to
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  Speaker 1: have you know, all all of the members of your
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  Speaker 1: of your staff have stepped up and really you know,
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  Speaker 1: taken charge you know, of these cases busy as you
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  Speaker 1: are in Ogle County. Uh. But again uh yeah, uh,
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  Speaker 1: very interesting comparison that Mike wanted to uh to show
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  Speaker 1: you this what he so thank you for that, uh,
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  Speaker 1: you know, kind of kind of opens our eyes a
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  Speaker 1: little bit and maybe the need Mike, you know, for
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  Speaker 1: you know, uh, those in charge to maybe sit up
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  Speaker 1: and take notice, and you know, maybe you know, in
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  Speaker 1: these next budget hearings or or meetings with boards and
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  Speaker 1: things like that, maybe you know a little bit of
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  Speaker 1: a push towards that, you know, and possible in Ogle County.
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  Speaker 1: We'll have to wait and see, obviously on that. Mike Rock,
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  Speaker 1: we thank you so very much for updating us on
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  Speaker 1: a busy docket of cases, as he always does with
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  Speaker 1: Ogle County. Our Ogle County State's Attorney, Mike Rock, has
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  Speaker 1: joined us today for our talk line on Wednesday. Mike,
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  Speaker 1: with our latter portion of the talk line, Yeah, we
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  Speaker 1: did want to again allude to an interesting subject that
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  Speaker 1: Mike and I have been again connecting with for many
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  Speaker 1: times since we came on board with this situation which
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  Speaker 1: started right here in the state of Illinois. But it's
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  Speaker 1: now taken kind of a light in national news, Mike,
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  Speaker 1: and that is cashless bail, and you know news from
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  Speaker 1: the White House that President Trump is looking at, you know,
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  Speaker 1: doing something about cashless bail along the federal level. Mike,
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  Speaker 1: you're gonna have to take us through you know, maybe
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  Speaker 1: you know, I know that things get a little bit
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  Speaker 1: more complicated we get to that level. But still it's
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  Speaker 1: it's it's being scrutinized now, not in Illinois, not in
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  Speaker 1: Illinois yet, but on the East Coast and especially in Washington,
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  Speaker 1: d C. In those areas. Uh, the President is looking
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  Speaker 1: at doing away with cashless spail.
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  Speaker 2: I think President did enter his executive order earlier this week.
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  Speaker 2: Cashless spail already exists at the federal level, so they
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  Speaker 2: they've already got they've been under that system. And that
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  Speaker 2: was one year. I talked about one of our biggest
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  Speaker 2: critiques of the manner in which it was done in Illinois.
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  Speaker 2: It was not done in a thoughtful, deliberative manner. It
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  Speaker 2: was done literally in the in the middle of the night,
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  Speaker 2: without most of the politicians knowing what they were signing.
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  Speaker 2: And it was it was hurried, it was not well
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  Speaker 2: thought out. Was the most extreme, agenda driven numbers of
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  Speaker 2: our state legislature pushed it through so most of the
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  Speaker 2: states journeys in the Illinois That was our primary complaint
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  Speaker 2: about it was the wet manner in which he was
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  Speaker 2: passed and to see underlying theory behind it, because we
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  Speaker 2: had been moving in the last decade plus and I've
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  Speaker 2: been a lawyer and the criminal justice system here for
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  Speaker 2: coming up on thirty five years, and the system has
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  Speaker 2: changed immensely since when I started. And the you know,
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  Speaker 2: they politicians tried to say that we were detaining single
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  Speaker 2: pregnant women who were stealing baby formula, you know, to
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  Speaker 2: see their children, that we were locking them up for
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  Speaker 2: months at a time. That just not not the case,
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  Speaker 2: certainly not out and I don't know counties where I'm
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  Speaker 2: familiar with out here in uh northwestern Illinois. That definitely
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  Speaker 2: not in Old County. So it will be interesting to
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  Speaker 2: see what the with the executive order, what effect it has.
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  Speaker 2: Hopefully they'll they'll take a look at it yet again
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  Speaker 2: because there's still portions of the cash List Bail Act
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  Speaker 2: that that need to be addressed. And particularly we have
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  Speaker 2: had our numbers go up with people just not coming
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  Speaker 2: to court because they they For example, we had uh
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  Speaker 2: we we fossd in some cases that were not allowed
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  Speaker 2: to detain my office, we do file petition for sanctions
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  Speaker 2: and ask that the person to be locked up or
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  Speaker 2: founding contempt and be held, Uh, based upon their repeated
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  Speaker 2: failure to appear. Well, one of the and this is
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  Speaker 2: actually in the law, which we all find affable. One
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  Speaker 2: of the things the judge can do, which they could
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  Speaker 2: do beforehand. It's even stupid that it's in the law.
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  Speaker 2: But let's say you and I don't show up the
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  Speaker 2: court for a while, we finally get picked up, we
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  Speaker 2: show up, and the prosecutor, after sanctions, the judge can
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  Speaker 2: give what's called a verbal admonishment from the bench. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: and you better show up next time. You can imagine
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  Speaker 2: how effective that is. Somebody's already broken the law, failed
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  Speaker 2: to appear multiple times, but they're told, hey, what you
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  Speaker 2: did is wrong, you better show up next time. So
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  Speaker 2: that's any real frustrating things when you go to court,
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  Speaker 2: and that that is the sanction for a defendant who
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  Speaker 2: are purely you know, some there knows that the system.
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  Speaker 1: And you just talked, Mike, you just talked and gave
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  Speaker 1: examples of the work increase that and the cost there's
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  Speaker 1: a cost to this, the work increase through the state's
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  Speaker 1: attorney's offices that have to be done now because of
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  Speaker 1: this situation. And uh, it's very interesting that as as
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  Speaker 1: I mentioned, Mike that it's being scrutinized now and it's
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  Speaker 1: being talked about at the national level. So uh, we'll
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  Speaker 1: see what the trickle down effect is again kind of
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  Speaker 1: focusing on that area out east, but again, uh, you know,
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  Speaker 1: the president is is looking at this as as a
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  Speaker 1: possible national issue, Uh, you know, pulling at the person,
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  Speaker 1: pulling at the you know, the sympathy strings, Mike, you
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  Speaker 1: know of those that can't afford bail, that can't you know, uh,
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  Speaker 1: you know, afford to post you know something at the
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  Speaker 1: outset after they committed a crime. This this, this is,
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  Speaker 1: this is you know, the the you know what what
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  Speaker 1: what what? Really I guess you know is at the
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  Speaker 1: crux of the matter.
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  Speaker 2: Uh.
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  Speaker 1: And and really, I, like you mentioned, Mike, should be
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  Speaker 1: scrutinized and should be amended and should be again redone
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  Speaker 1: revamped again this cash list bail situation, and uh again
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  Speaker 1: the area of the state's attorney's office that has to
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  Speaker 1: go the extra mile again to again take care of business.
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  Speaker 1: As far as this issue, we'll be talking about it, Mike,
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  Speaker 1: you know as we see it kind of you know,
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  Speaker 1: move ahead uh with the not only state now, but
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  Speaker 1: federal information coming our way on this cash list bail situation. Micah,
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  Speaker 1: we're out of time on the talk line today. We
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  Speaker 1: appreciate you visiting with us against sharing all the information
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  Speaker 1: that you do every time you come aboard. Always a
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  Speaker 1: pleasure having you on board, Sir. We'll get an update
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  Speaker 1: later on in the year, but for now, we thank
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  Speaker 1: you so very much for joining us today.
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  Speaker 2: I really appreciate the opportunity of talk.
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  Speaker 1: Take care our Ogle County State's Attorney, Mike Rockotut of Oregon,
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  Speaker 1: our guest today on the talk line here at Wixen
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  Speaker 1: News versus next. I'm sure I'm getting it for so
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  Speaker 1: local news