* What follows are excerpts from a Tribune op-ed by Cook County Circuit Clerk Iris Martinez along with excerpts of a rebuttal I requested from the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice…
• Cook County Circuit Clerk Iris Martinez: In the first 50 weeks of the PFA, out of 90,872 cases, defendants missed court 67,416 times. This includes defendants charged with violent felonies.
• Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice: The Circuit Clerk also claims “defendants missed court 67,416 times” in “the first 50 weeks” after the law changed, but she does not indicate any source for these numbers, define what she considered to be “missing court,” or clarify how many of these cases were already pending when the law changed and thus were initiated under the money bond system. In contrast, the Cook County Circuit Court’s September 28, 2024 Pretrial Fairness Act Weekly Dashboard (encompassing three additional weeks of data) indicates only 65,298 criminal cases have been filed since the law went into effect. The transparently absurd claim that more court dates have been missed than cases have been filed raises serious concerns that Martinez’s numbers have fundamental and incurable flaws.
• Martinez: There are currently 31,393 active warrants for arrest in Cook County; they include cases before the PFA.
• Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice: First, because the Circuit Clerk refuses to provide data to either reporters or other court stakeholders, it is unclear what universe of cases she is considering or what she is labeling as a “failure to appear.” As the Chief Judge’s initial letter in response points out, the circuit clerk “did not provide clear parameters,” making it nearly impossible to understand—much less dispute—her claims.
For example, Martinez points to 31,393 felony cases that have open warrants, but the vast majority of these warrants predate the Pretrial Fairness Act and were issued under the money bond system. This is not an analysis of behavior under the Pretrial Fairness Act but instead an attempt to wrongly assign blame for tens of thousands of warrants issued under the money bond system to the Pretrial Fairness Act by obscuring when those warrants were issued.
There’s more, so click here for the full Martinez op-ed and click here for the full Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice response.
* Also, the Sun-Times ran a story on this topic last month. Excerpt…
But in response to questions on Wednesday, Martinez declined to discuss her office’s methodology or explain how it reached some of the figures cited in the letter. For example, the total number of cases during the period Martinez cited was 30,000 higher than those released by Chief Judge Timothy Evans’ office.
A spokesperson for the clerk’s office acknowledged its analysis included all active warrants in Cook County in its calculations, including warrants filed years before cash bail was abolished.
- Friendly Bob Adams - Thursday, Oct 10, 24 @ 10:41 am:
It would be funny if it wasn’t so serious: “including warrants filed years before cash bail was abolished”
- DS - Thursday, Oct 10, 24 @ 10:44 am:
Wow hard to believe the Cook County Democratic party supported her opponent.
- Lurker - Thursday, Oct 10, 24 @ 10:59 am:
The main job of a circuit clerk is to keep records and share the data in those records. But this person refuses to share? I must be missing something.
- Allergic to Bull**** - Thursday, Oct 10, 24 @ 11:06 am:
How many of those active warrants are for people who are dead, people who are incarcerated, people who were never apprehended in the first place, people who haven’t been in contact with law enforcement for decades, people charged with misdemeanor cases, or people who were issued multiple warrants for multiple different cases that were pending at the same time?
- Big Dipper - Thursday, Oct 10, 24 @ 11:15 am:
Pretty clear why the voters fired her. Maybe the Trib should not be running op-eds from folks lacking in credibility. Vallas and Willie Wilson are bad enough.
- Amalia - Thursday, Oct 10, 24 @ 11:26 am:
don’t believe her numbers. don’t believe their numbers. clearly there needs to be a better and more accessible system of learning about court cases. and agreement between the Clerk of the Court and the judges side about how things are counted. it’s always murky because cases don’t come in and go out in one calendar year. but numbers of people who don’t show up, that’s a number that should not only be correct, but produced more frequently. and also go get the people who don’t show up
- Anyone Remember - Thursday, Oct 10, 24 @ 11:41 am:
“… mandatory, statewide data collection and public reporting in the Act … .”
From underfunded offices run by elected officials? Good luck with that. Remember the consolidation of child support activities into the SDU under Ryan?
- Ricochet - Thursday, Oct 10, 24 @ 12:43 pm:
Well, to address one point, of course you can fail to appear multiple times on one case. Case filed, fail to appear, warrant, pickup, next court date, fail to appear - then repeat. Not sure what the Network for Pretrial Justice was going for there.
However, getting data out of Cook County hasn’t just been difficult - it’s been impossible. They just don’t have it. But I thought with their new tens-of-millions case management system that they should be able to produce some reliable data at least for the past year. What’s up with that?
- Politix - Thursday, Oct 10, 24 @ 12:54 pm:
I’m surprised the Cook County Circuit Court’s office even has a data collection system. The Dorothy Brown admin never did.
- Dee4Three - Thursday, Oct 10, 24 @ 1:24 pm:
The independent review of the most consequential criminal just laws ever passed is literally being conducted by Loyola University which makes this cry for attention even worse.
- Original Rambler - Thursday, Oct 10, 24 @ 2:49 pm:
What a disaster Martinez turned out to be on all fronts. Can’t say I miss Dorothy Brown but do miss Aurelia Pucinski.
- charles in charge - Thursday, Oct 10, 24 @ 3:10 pm:
==Pretty clear why the voters fired her. Maybe the Trib should not be running op-eds from folks lacking in credibility. Vallas and Willie Wilson are bad enough.==
Let’s not forget CPD Superintendent Snelling’s recent Tribune op-ed in which he made the outrageous and demonstrably false claim that people accused of possessing machine guns can’t be jailed because of the SAFE-T Act–a blatant lie for which he’s mostly been given a free pass by the media.
- Leslie K - Thursday, Oct 10, 24 @ 3:19 pm:
===However, getting data out of Cook County hasn’t just been difficult - it’s been impossible. They just don’t have it.===
This has always been true and continues to be. Inexcusable in 2024 (or even 2019, or 2014…). But it does help them evade accountability.
- TNR - Thursday, Oct 10, 24 @ 3:58 pm:
== The transparently absurd claim that more court dates have been missed than cases have been filed raises serious concerns ==
Does seem absurd, but is it possible that individual defendants are missing multiple court dates on a single charge? For instance, he’s a no-show for the first hearing, the judge sets a second hearing for a few weeks later and he skips that one, too.
- Stephanie Kollmann - Thursday, Oct 10, 24 @ 4:25 pm:
Remember when the clerk gave people fake felony records for 3 years and when it was pointed out to her did not correct them for 8+ months resulting in one man that we know of becoming homeless and unknown other personal tragedies?
https://www.wbez.org/criminal-justice/2023/05/17/cook-county-felony-record-chaos
Because I think about it regularly
- Stephanie Kollmann - Thursday, Oct 10, 24 @ 4:30 pm:
“My office automated all three court systems and digitized more than 70 million court records. This has provided an unprecedented opportunity for transparency”
I’ll say!
https://illinoisanswers.org/2024/02/23/court-clerks-error-exposed-data-involving-thousands-of-juvenile-defendants-violating-state-law/
- Stephanie Kollmann - Thursday, Oct 10, 24 @ 4:31 pm:
==Let’s not forget CPD Superintendent Snelling’s recent Tribune op-ed in which he made the outrageous and demonstrably false claim that people accused of possessing machine guns can’t be jailed because of the SAFE-T Act–a blatant lie for which he’s mostly been given a free pass by the media.==
+1
- Lincoln Lad - Thursday, Oct 10, 24 @ 4:52 pm:
I remember when Iris Martinez had the respect of most… what has happened to her? This is a horrible mistake.
- In the weeds - Thursday, Oct 10, 24 @ 5:45 pm:
Of course some people can miss multiple court dates, but a huge part of the problem with her claims is that Martinez never even defines what she is labeling as a “missed court date.” If you miss court but your lawyer is there and explains you are in the hospital and you come back next week with proof you were in the hospital, is that a missed court date? And more importantly, is that a missed court date that anyone cares about or that should be manipulated to try and make the law more punitive for hundreds of thousands of people annually? I would say not.
I also think a lot of people don’t realize criminal court dates are scheduled without regard for when someone can actually attend, such as if it conflicts with work or other obligations. It may or may not be on zoom or in-person, and it might require waiting for hours to be called. If you find out later you can’t be there for any reason, there is no way to reschedule. And of course people will say “it’s court, you just have to be there!” But that ignores that for many people, missing work could mean missing rent or even losing that job. The courts don’t have to schedule this way and make people choose between staying employed or staying housed and complying with court dates, but they choose to. The process is the punishment.
Anyway, the fact Martinez won’t share the data behind her claims with reporters or her partners in the court system is proof enough that something is wrong with her claims, but so is common-sense. As the Sun-Times article said: “Researchers, judges, prosecutors, public defenders and domestic violence advocates were baffled and said Martinez’s findings did not line up with what they’re seeing every day in court.”