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

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  Speaker 1: Past the hour. This is Thursday. It's February the thirteenth,
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  Speaker 1: the year is twenty twenty five, and it's time for
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  Speaker 1: another informational edition of Talkline here at AM fourteen sixteen
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  Speaker 1: FM ninety five one WIX in. Good morning. I'm Steve Marco.
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  Speaker 1: Time for our report from your Ogle County State's Attorney.
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  Speaker 1: He joins us for another series of reports in twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty five, and we i shure in a brand new
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  Speaker 1: year of reports with the ignited one this month of February.
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  Speaker 1: Our good friend, the Ogle County State's Attorney, Mike Rock
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  Speaker 1: is lied with us by telephone this morning here at wixcent.
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  Speaker 1: I guess Mike, happy new year, Right's right?
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  Speaker 2: Yes, that's been a while.
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  Speaker 1: That's right. Yeah, it's been a while since we've had
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  Speaker 1: Mike on the radio with us here at AM fourteen
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  Speaker 1: sixteen FM ninety five one. So we've got a lot
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  Speaker 1: of catching up to do in our report today with
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  Speaker 1: our Ogle County States Attorney, Mike. Let's first of all,
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  Speaker 1: before we get to those cases that you're overseeing right
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  Speaker 1: now through the Ogle County State's Attorney's office, let's let's
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  Speaker 1: look back at twenty twenty four You've got some stats
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  Speaker 1: from twenty twenty four that are very interesting you wanted
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  Speaker 1: to share with us this morning.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I appreciate giving me the opportunity to share
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  Speaker 2: what we've accomplished each year two thousand and twenty four.
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  Speaker 2: Just as far as numbers across the board, you know,
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  Speaker 2: going back the last three years, we're averaging right around
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  Speaker 2: two hundred and seventy felony violins a year in Old County,
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  Speaker 2: and that's that hasn't done varied too much from that number. Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 2: our domestic violence cases have continued to go up just
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  Speaker 2: about each year, So we were up significantly in twenty
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  Speaker 2: twenty four on our domestic violence cases over twenty twenty three. Similarly,
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  Speaker 2: DUIs have been going up each year as well, and
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  Speaker 2: you know that's very unfortunate. That being said, those are
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  Speaker 2: the cases that we've focused on. Also, when we have
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  Speaker 2: an opportunity to enhance those types of cases, to selling
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  Speaker 2: cases and seek the most severe penalties for those particular offenses,
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  Speaker 2: that's what we've been very aggressive about. But yeah, last year,
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  Speaker 2: right now, as about February twenty five, we have one
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  Speaker 2: hundred and eighty seven penning felling cases, sixty seven misdemeanor,
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  Speaker 2: ninety seven y uy thirty four domestic violence cases. And
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  Speaker 2: that's to be compared that one month with my team
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  Speaker 2: and I came into office five years ago, there were
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  Speaker 2: four hundred and one pending selonyes, seven hundred and seventy
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  Speaker 2: five misdemeanors. They're two hundred and eighty one duy. So
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  Speaker 2: we I'm very proud of the fact that we managed
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  Speaker 2: to reduce the pending cases that are going through the system. Well,
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  Speaker 2: at the same time, the filings have increased, but we're
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  Speaker 2: resolving them in quicker, more efficient manner and in a
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  Speaker 2: manner too that I think dispositions that reflect the seriousness
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  Speaker 2: of the offenses they've been committed.
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  Speaker 1: Before we break down, Micah the twenty twenty four news
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  Speaker 1: that you shared with us, let's move right in to
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  Speaker 1: the first part of twenty twenty five. You mentioned some
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  Speaker 1: of the statistics out of the first part of this year.
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  Speaker 1: Can you spotlight or can you take us through any
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  Speaker 1: of the cases that have been concluded by the Oga
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  Speaker 1: County States Attorney's Office that you can comment on today.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it has been a close start to the year
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  Speaker 2: as far as gained cases resolved. The reason for it is.
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  Speaker 2: We had been set to myself and to my assistance,
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  Speaker 2: and there listeners know there are full time assistant State
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  Speaker 2: Storings in the office and myself. So we had the
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  Speaker 2: five attorneys and three of us were set myself, my
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  Speaker 2: first assistant, and an assistant. We're all set to being
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  Speaker 2: a month long jury trial starting on February third. That
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  Speaker 2: was people Versus Myire that's Byron double murder. It's been
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  Speaker 2: pending for a significant period of time. That case has
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  Speaker 2: been filed before I took office in twenty twenty. We've
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  Speaker 2: been in the process of doing motion hearings on that
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  Speaker 2: case for last three or four years. We were set
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  Speaker 2: for trial and then there was a motion for change
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  Speaker 2: of venue that got filed in that case. And essentially
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  Speaker 2: what the defense was arguing is that there was so
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  Speaker 2: much publicity around that case that they don't believe that
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  Speaker 2: they could get a fair trial. Was tried in Oval County.
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  Speaker 2: That as well a couple of other issues resulted in the
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  Speaker 2: trial being taken off. And we are set February twenty
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  Speaker 2: seventh on that case to argue the change of venue motion.
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  Speaker 2: And what that is is if the case, if the
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  Speaker 2: court did rule, if the detendant could not get a
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  Speaker 2: fair trial amongst his peers here in Oval County, then
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  Speaker 2: we could potentially be moved to a different county. All
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  Speaker 2: the attorney's stam the case, myself, my prosecutors, we would
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  Speaker 2: follow the case to wherever it would be tried, and
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  Speaker 2: if that were granted, we could end up the judge
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  Speaker 2: as well, could all end up essentially going to another
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  Speaker 2: county and picking the jury from that county and trying
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  Speaker 2: the case there. So that really that case being set
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  Speaker 2: for the whole month. You can imagine that the amount
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  Speaker 2: of time that was being devoted to being that case
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  Speaker 2: ready for trial, and without that, you know that that
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  Speaker 2: did now ork refocusing on on other matters, but it
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  Speaker 2: did result with that that case. We have two fellamy
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  Speaker 2: judges here in Oval County with that case, uh, you know,
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  Speaker 2: set to take up that much time and to kind
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  Speaker 2: of cause the whole system to slow down a bit.
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  Speaker 2: But we're casit