Do Sex Crime Cases Get Special Prosecutors 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: Do sex crime cases get special prosecutors in Illinois?
Christopher Combs: I think just like any other state you typically see teams and state’s attorney’s office, prosecutor’s office, DA’s office where you’ve got a group of state’s attorneys, assistant state’s attorneys that solely work on domestic violence cases, solely work on sex cases. Sex cases are almost a subspecialty in criminal defense. You’ll find that there are some defense firms that don’t do sex cases because it’s a subspecialty and there are a lot of different laws that apply to like rape shield laws and different laws that apply where there are roundabouts for the state to get into hearsay statements. So, if you’re not well versed in sex crimes, you should not be doing them as a defense attorney, but it is not unusual for a special prosecutor to be brought in for a sex crimes case. Would you agree, Josh?
Joshua Boardman: I would agree. So in counties with larger populations often times there are dedicated teams. In more rural counties where sex crimes are at least alleged or charges are brought, it’s not uncommon for special state’s attorneys to come out of the attorney general’s office or come over from a different county where someone may have experience in sex crimes where a state’s attorney may not have experience. So, I would say that state’s attorneys offices are responsible for filing the charges and so there are some counties that I’ve encountered charges where there are not dedicated teams, but there certainly can be special teams or special state’s attorneys that are assigned to these types of cases.
