19 Comments - Dutch - Thursday, Dec 10, 20 @ 9:13 am: A day late, sorry. The Illini looked good on Tuesday. I’d love to see an Illinois-Iowa border war at the Final Four this year…if they play it. - Gruntled University Employee - Thursday, Dec 10, 20 @ 9:17 am: Is it just me or does it seem like Tom DeVore is angling for a spot on the Trump election fraud legal dream team. /s - Anon E Moose - Thursday, Dec 10, 20 @ 9:17 am: Happy Birthday Rod Blagojevich - JoanP - Thursday, Dec 10, 20 @ 9:21 am: = Is it just me or does it seem like Tom DeVore is angling for a spot on the Trump election fraud legal dream team. /s = I was going to say that he couldn’t do worse, but, yeah, he probably could. - Huh? - Thursday, Dec 10, 20 @ 9:23 am: Anyone see the northern lights last night? Went out about 10pm, didn’t see them. Too many city lights. - Chicagonk - Thursday, Dec 10, 20 @ 9:25 am: All I have to say is Pritzker needs to make fixing IDES priority number 1 (after COVID of course). It’s frankly embarrassing. - Skeptic - Thursday, Dec 10, 20 @ 9:30 am: “Anyone see the northern lights last night?” The expected geomagnetic storm didn’t materialize so there wasn’t the anticipated show. But the solar sunspot cycle is on the rise, so stay tuned over the next few years. - Steve Rogers - Thursday, Dec 10, 20 @ 9:31 am: Bruce Rushton has a great interview with Bernie Schoenberg in today’s Illinois Times. https://www.illinoistimes.com/springfield/bye-bye-bernie/Content?oid=12926897 - hisgirlfriday - Thursday, Dec 10, 20 @ 9:39 am: Interesting politics around the way judges are treating some of the folks involved in the civil unrest after George Floyd’s death. In McLean County, Judge Yoder has made it a point to not accept any plea deals negotiated by prosecutors and public defenders for individuals charged in such looting/unrest. As a result, yesterday a man who did not go into a Target store to loot but was accused of throwing rocks and water bottles toward police in the Target parking lot was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison and ordered to pay approx. $85,000 in restitution on a mob action charge. The prosecutor and public defender had jointly recommended he get just community service and probation where he had already spent 166 days in jail and apologized for his conduct. This man was also sentenced by Yoder to two years in prison for a non-fatal 2019 DUI when in at least one other case Yoder had recommended a driver who pleaded guilty in a fatal DUI for a six-month boot camp program to complete his sentence. https://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/bloomington-man-gets-4-5-years-related-to-normal-looting/article_a4be96df-7489-5996-b08f-4f0539471fd2.html#tracking-source=home-trending Of course nothing will come of this because the Illinois Democratic Party does not even bother to slate Democrats to run against unopposed Republican circuit judges in McLean County let alone support actual campaigns, and I do not expect that to change even after McLean went Dem for president and U.S. senate in 2020. - Rudy’s teeth - Thursday, Dec 10, 20 @ 9:42 am: Tom DeVore is Illinois’ Bad Penny. - Give Me A Break - Thursday, Dec 10, 20 @ 9:44 am: Dutch if the Illin team that played Duke keeps showing up, the wars between Iowa, Michigan State and Illinois are going to be epic this year. - Trubisky’s clipboard - Thursday, Dec 10, 20 @ 9:49 am: As a result, yesterday a man who did not go into a Target store to loot but was accused of throwing rocks and water bottles toward police in the Target parking lot was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison and ordered to pay approx. $85,000 in restitution on a mob action charge You left out that he pleaded guilty. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. It’s called being held accountable. We need more of it. - JoanP - Thursday, Dec 10, 20 @ 9:57 am: =Judge Yoder has made it a point to not accept any plea deals negotiated = If he has made it clear that that is his policy, he needs to be appealed on each and every relevant case. A judge cannot have a blanket rule that he will not consider a legally available sentence in a particular type of case. - Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Thursday, Dec 10, 20 @ 10:15 am: “not to accept any plea deal negotiated” Be careful. You never know who will be a defendant in your court. - DuPage Dave - Thursday, Dec 10, 20 @ 10:20 am: Beautiful day today in DuPage. Hardly seems like December, but then nothing is what it used to be these days. - hisgirlfriday - Thursday, Dec 10, 20 @ 10:30 am: @JoanP This WGLT article has Judge Yoder saying he is not accepting any plea deals for specifically agreed sentences in looting cases. https://www.wglt.org/post/judge-all-sentencing-options-open-accused-looters#stream/0 He did however accept a fully negotiated plea deal for a man charged with a range of felonies for his company improperly taking approx. $450,000 from the city of Bloomington under an arena management contract. That guy ultimately got 91 days of house arrest and had everything dropped but one misdemeanor after he promised to pay that amount back in restitution. - Chatham Resident - Thursday, Dec 10, 20 @ 12:18 pm: ==Bruce Rushton has a great interview with Bernie Schoenberg in today’s Illinois Times.== The Times’ Bernie interview has two great photo caption contest ideas. It includes two pictures of a younger Bernie with Governors Ryan and Blago. - Chatham Resident - Thursday, Dec 10, 20 @ 12:31 pm: In the realignment of the minor leagues and the Midwest League upgrading to high-Class A level, the Kane County Cougars are left out of this realignment. https://www.starcourier.com/story/sports/mlb/2020/12/10/only-two-minor-league-teams-left-near-kewanee/3881198001/ Also out of the Midwest League are the teams in Clinton, IA and Burlington, IA–which have also had fan interest in parts of western and northwest Illinois. Only the Peoria and Quad Cities teams locally made the cut. Could Kane County, Clinton and Burlington be future Springfield Sliders opponents? That is, if the Sliders return? - West Side the Best Side - Thursday, Dec 10, 20 @ 1:00 pm: JoanP - Unless the judge did not comply with admonishing the defendant pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 402, or indicated he would go along with the agreement and then didn’t, there’s probably not much chance on appeal even if his policy is not to go along with plea agreements in looting cases. He’s probably careful enough (one would hope) not to say he won’t consider any applicable sentence, just that in looting cases he won’t be bound by an agreement between the State and defense. A judge could take that position in all cases. Obviously any defense attorney representing a client in a looting case who is assigned to that judge should, up to the point of it being malpractice if they don’t, file a Substitution of Judge (SOJ) motion. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.