* This story from last month kinda got lost in the shuffle of a busy week…

[DuPage County State’s Attorney Bob Berlin] renewed his call for [SAFE-T Act] reforms recently, citing the recent death of a Villa Park woman by strangulation.

The recent incident Berlin highlighted involved Estefania Abril-Hernandez, who was found dead in her Villa Park home by DuPage County Sheriff’s deputies at 3:49 a.m. Thursday, March 19, after having been reported missing the prior evening by her family.

Abril-Hernandez is believed to have died by strangulation; she was found with a vacuum power cord wrapped tightly around her neck nine times.

Abril-Hernandez’s estranged husband, Brian Hernandez, of Oak Forest, is suspected of the murder. Police found him in possession of Abril-Hernandez’s vehicle and cell phone prior to locating Abril-Hernandez.

While discussing the incident at a DuPage County Board meeting Tuesday, April 14, Berlin outlined Hernandez’s history of violent behavior, which included alleged interference in past domestic violence incidents with Abril-Hernandez.

One particular incident involved Hernandez allegedly hanging up on 911 operators as Abril-Hernandez initially called the emergency number.

Speaking specifically to the 911 hang-up, Berlin indicated Hernandez was released on a recognizance bond, since interfering with a domestic violence report is not a detainable offense under the current provisions within the Illinois Pretrial Fairness Act.

But a domestic battery charge is detainable, and for whatever reason he wasn’t charged with committing that crime, even though at some point Ms. Abril-Hernandez obtained an order of protection. So it must’ve been serious. Instead Hernandez was charged apparently more than once with the misdemeanor crime of interfering with a domestic violence report. Berlin has yet to explain why.

* I was reminded of the story when this press release from the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice arrived in my in-box…

• In March of this year, Estefania Abril-Hernandez’s estranged husband murdered her. [DuPage County] State’s Attorney Bob Berlin seized on this tragedy to renew his calls for changes to increase the detention eligibility net, complaining that there are “loopholes in the law.” Abril-Hernandez’s husband had been accused of hanging up the phone as she called 911 to report domestic violence, and prosecutors charged him with interfering with a domestic violence report. That misdemeanor is not a detainable offense under the Pretrial Fairness Act (nor was it under the money bond system), and her husband was released.

• It is important to note two things:

o Under the old money bond system, he would not have been eligible for pretrial detention and would have been, at most, ordered to pay a money bond.
o The law the husband was charged with violating requires that he first commit an act of domestic violence, chargeable as the detainable offense of domestic battery, yet the prosecutor did not file that charge.

• It is not clear why Berlin’s office opted for this lesser—and what he deemed a “loophole”—charge, which they knew was not detainable, or if there was anything that could have predicted that this man would commit this horrific act. Nor do we know whether the office offered Ms. Arbril-Hernandez any resources before this tragedy occurred. Rather than reflect on whether his office, or any other entity, could have done something differently, Mr. Berlin once again railed against provisions of the Pretrial Fairness Act.

• Berlin’s own statements show how opportunistic he is being. “Since its implementation into law two-and-a-half years ago,” a local news station reported, “DuPage County State’s Attorney Bob Berlin said he has been calling for amendments to the Illinois Pretrial Fairness Act” It should be no surprise, then, that he used this tragedy as a platform to call, yet again, for changes.

Blaming the Pretrial Fairness Act or a judge’s decision for atypical events is disingenuous and misguided. Instead, it would be more productive to conduct an analysis after such an event occurs to determine whether there are places where interventions or other actions might have made a difference: from mental health treatment to relocation support for a victim to following protocols when warrants are issued. Opponents of the Pretrial Fairness Act do not appear to be interested in conducting that analysis, but instead, they jump to blame the law, which is completely unproductive.