Can I Be Denied Pretrial Release in Illinois? Attorneys Christopher Combs and Joshua Boardman from Combs Waterkotte discuss everything you need to know about Illinois sex crime charges, including sexual assault, sexual abuse, rape, and more.
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Interview Transcript
Scott Michael Dunn: Can I be denied pretrial release in Illinois?
Christopher Combs: Yes, short answer is yes. If the judge makes a determination that you’re a flight risk, a danger to the community or yourself, also look at criminal history, things of that nature, if the judge determines those things, then yes, you can denied any type of bail or release. It’s my understanding and this question would be for Josh, I think Illinois operates on kind of a cashless bail. They just look at the kind of safety issues. Is that correct?
Joshua Boardman: Correct. Yes, so what’s going to happen is detention hearings throughout the lifespan of a case. And so I believe your question was, can you be denied release before-?
Dunn: Correct. Pretrial release.
Boardman: Yes, absolutely. For one thing that legal mechanism or that legal question of whether or not you’re going to be released is brought by the state’s attorney’s office. They have the burden of proof that through their petition to detain that the defendant poses a present risk to a person or persons within the community, that the defendant poses a flight risk and they cannot be trusted to participate in the court proceedings prior to trial or trial itself. And so if the state’s attorney is able to provide a viable enough argument as to either one of those things, then they look at community ties. They look at employment. They look at substance abuse issues, alcoholism. They look at criminal history. They look at mental health specific to sex crimes. Often times in sex crimes, judges look at access to technology and all of those types of things. So, the judge is going to make an evaluation and if the judge finds that they do not believe that the defendant can be trusted to stay local and participate in the proceedings or if they find that that defendant poses a threat to the community or to a certain person, then they’ll deny him and they’ll sit in there prior to trial. Now, you’ve got speedy trial protections and things of that nature, but yes, you can expect to sit in jail until the day of your trial.
