THE ILLINOIZE: Monday Free for All...Cash bail...La Schiazza trial...ADM's CO2 issue
September 16, 2024
Good morning, Illinois.
I stayed up late last night to watch the Bears game.
Not my brightest move.
But the Illini are 3-0 and ranked for the first time since 2022, so there’s that!
There’s nothing on Governor Pritzker’s public schedule today.
Let’s get to it.
YOUR MONDAY FREE FOR ALL
(note: we’re not responsible for paywalls and restrictions from other news outlets, because good journalism isn’t free)
A year after end of cash bail, early research shows impact less than many hoped or feared (Capitol News Illinois)
One year after Illinois became the first state in the nation to eliminate the use of cash bail, the impact on the state’s criminal justice system appears to have been far less dramatic than people on either side of the debate had predicted.
That, at least, is the early indication from an analysis of data being monitored by the Center for Criminal Justice at Loyola University in Chicago.
“Jail populations did go down a bit, but nowhere near as much as some people were predicting, and the research suggests that the rate at which people are being released from jail pretrial likely hasn't changed dramatically,” David Olson, a co-director of the center, said during an interview this week.
“What's changing is that the means of release are changing,” he added. “People don't have to post the money, and rather than being released in a few days when they come up with the money, they're being released in a day or two.”
The law to end cash bail in Illinois passed the General Assembly during a special lame duck session in January 2021. Known as the Pretrial Fairness Act, it was part of a broader criminal justice reform package known as the SAFE-T Act that was backed by the Legislative Black Caucus.
Those measures passed during a period of social unrest that followed the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police the previous summer. But the push to reform the cash bond system in Illinois had begun years earlier.
In 2017, the Illinois Supreme Court formed a Commission on Pretrial Practices, charging it with studying and making recommendations about comprehensive pretrial reform. That commission issued a report in April 2020, a full month before Floyd’s murder.
In that report, the commission noted there was already a “growing national movement” underway focused on eliminating cash bail as a means of securing a defendant’s appearance in court because it resulted in people being detained in jail, sometimes for lengthy periods of time while awaiting trial, solely because of their inability to pay a cash bond.
The report called for a new pretrial system in which only people charged with specific violent offenses would be held while awaiting trial. It further recommended detention only if prosecutors could show they posed an “unmanageable level of risk” that they would commit more offenses while on release and that no conditions or set of conditions could be attached to their release that would mitigate that risk.
Then, just before the law was set to go into effect later that month, the Supreme Court put it on hold while it considered those challenges. But in a 5-2 ruling in July 2023, the court rejected those challenges, upheld the law as constitutional, and cleared the way for it to go into effect 60 days later, on Sept. 18, 2023.
In advance of the one-year anniversary of the new law, the Center for Criminal Justice released preliminary data from its ongoing effort to monitor the law’s impact.
One of the first things researchers noticed, Olson said, is that detention hearings now take considerably more time than they used to. In urban counties that handle large numbers of criminal cases, he said, the median length of a detention hearing went from four minutes before the law took effect to 16 minutes under the new rules.
Researchers also noticed a change in the issues discussed during those hearings. Prior to the new law, Olson said, most of the discussion centered on the offense being charged and the defendant’s criminal history. But since the new law went into effect, he said there is more focus on the strength of the evidence against the defendant as well as the risk the defendant poses to other individuals.
Also, he said, judges have begun providing more specific, detailed explanations for their decisions about whether to hold a defendant or place conditions on their release.
“Part of that is likely because this is a new law,” he said. “There are a lot of legal challenges on individual cases as to whether or not the person should have been detained, and it's likely the judges are trying to establish a clear record for those subsequent appeals. But part of it is also that the expectations of what is considered during the decision to detain are much more clearly articulated in the law, and the judge is likely trying to ensure that they kind of touch on all those things that have to be considered.”
Related: ‘People who should be held are being held’: Pretrial Fairness Act marks first year this week (Daily Herald)
Ex-lawmaker became 'borderline unprofessional' when AT&T offered him money, jurors hear at corruption trial (Chicago Sun-Times)
By the time AT&T Illinois lobbyists sat down with recently retired state Rep. Edward “Eddie” Acevedo to offer him a $2,500-a-month consulting job in 2017, a week had nearly gone by since a utility executive signed a deal to steer Acevedo the cash.
But Acevedo was apparently not impressed. One lobbyist tried in court Friday to politely describe Acevedo’s reaction — before a prosecutor assured him he could swear.
“F--- AT&T,” Acevedo allegedly said. “They can kiss my a--.”
That was according to Tom Cullen, a veteran lobbyist and former staffer for now indicted longtime Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan. Cullen took the witness stand Friday as prosecutors neared the end of their separate case against AT&T Illinois President Paul La Schiazza.
La Schiazza is accused of bribing Madigan by funneling $22,500 to Acevedo through Cullen’s firm in 2017, just as AT&T was trying to score a big win with legislation in Springfield. On Friday, jurors heard Cullen corroborate much of the testimony delivered earlier in the week.
But they also heard that Acevedo, a Democrat who served two decades in the Legislature, thought he “deserved more money.” Meanwhile, not every answer they heard lined up with the prosecutors’ theory of the case.
U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman adjourned the trial Friday before La Schiazza’s defense attorneys had a chance to cross-examine Cullen. Earlier, attorneys told the judge the case could be in the hands of the jury by next week’s end.
Like others before him, Cullen told jurors that Madigan had “complete control” of the Illinois House and the Democratic Party of Illinois. He also explained that Madigan was “very, very close” to longtime lobbyist Michael McClain.
Prosecutors say it was McClain who sought the contract for Acevedo from AT&T, prompting staff there to believe the request really came from Madigan, a Southwest Side Democrat.
Former AT&T lobbyist Stephen Selcke testified Thursday that the utility paid Acevedo through Cullen’s firm partly so Republican lawmakers wouldn’t find out it had hired Acevedo. However, Cullen was apparently led to believe AT&T wanted to hide it from state Rep. Theresa Mah.
Mah, also a Democrat, had defeated Acevedo’s son, Alex Acevedo, in a contentious primary election in 2016. Both Acevedos wound up going to prison for cheating on their taxes.
Related: On witness stand, former AT&T lobbyist describes how Madigan ally got $22,500 contract (Capitol News Illinois)
Former top political aide to Speaker Madigan testifies in bribery trial of ex-AT&T boss (Chicago Tribune)
No job at AT&T for 'loose-lipped' Madigan ally — until exec 'got a call,' jurors hear (Chicago Sun-Times)
In bribery trial, AT&T lobbyists detail contentious meeting with Madigan ally (Capitol News Illinois)
ADM's Decatur CO2 injection well violates permit, EPA says (Bloomington Pantagraph)
Archer Daniels Midland Co. has been cited by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for failing to properly respond to the seepage of injected carbon dioxide into "unauthorized zones" below its North American headquarters in Decatur.
In a violation notice issued last month, EPA officials cited the company for injection activity not allowed under its permit, failing to follow an emergency response plan in accordance with the permit and failure to monitor the well.
The agency did not provide more detail in the notice.
There was no evidence that the findings put the public at risk, but the news did heighten calls for more caution as steps are taken to expand the practice, and raises questions about why word of the violation is just now coming out.
ADM officials said Friday the alleged violations stem from the discovery in late 2023 of corrosion in one of its two deep monitoring wells at around 5,000 feet below the ground. The company said it was primarily pitting, a localized form of corrosion that leads to the creation of small holes in the metal. The well was eventually plugged.
But in March 2024, "formation fluid" related to the corrosion was discovered just above the confining zone, a geological formation meant to serve as a barrier separating carbon storage sites from drinking water sources and the surface above.
The area where the leak occurred is thousands of feet below most domestic water wells and the deepest portions of Lake Decatur, but about 500 feet above the start of the Mt. Simon Sandstone, the layer of rock in which ADM is permitted to inject carbon dioxide.
Related: ADM carbon sequestration project violated Safe Drinking Water Act, per EPA (Capitol News Illinois)
TOP STORIES LAST WEEK ON THEILLINOIZE.COM
POLITICAL POTPOURRI
‘People are desperate’: Illinois harm reduction organizations await settlement funding in effort to reduce opioid overdoses (Chicago Tribune)
Ed Burke’s law firm once worked for family of judge who sentenced him to prison (Chicago Sun-Times)
Convicted ex-US Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. pushing for presidential pardon with help from suburban mayors (Chicago Tribune)
A new lawsuit alleges Hawthorne Race Course allowed horses to race after they’d been deemed ineligible (WBEZ)
Illinois DMVs now accepting contactless payment — with digital IDs coming down the road (Chicago Sun-Times)
Johnson resists call for staffer's ouster over police, Palestine comments (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Last-ditch attempt to keep ShotSpotter snuffed out by parliamentary counter-maneuver (Chicago Sun-Times)
Editorial: Chicago must keep ShotSpotter. The data leaves no doubt. (Chicago Tribune)
Editorial: Another week the mayor would probably like us to forget (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Opinion: We can't ignore the big problem of chronic absenteeism in our schools (Chicago Sun-Times)
Opinion: Is a property tax hike in the making to fill Mayor Brandon Johnson’s budget hole? (Chicago Tribune)
Opinion: Keeping questions on statewide ballot requires extra citizen effort (Shaw Media)
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