Election 2020: Meet the candidates for DeKalb County State's Attorney

Editor's note: Daily Chronicle Editor Kelsey Rettke had an in-depth discussion about the key issues in the race for DeKalb County State's Attorney. A video of the full candidate Q&A, along with profiles on all local candidates, can be found on the Daily Chronicle's Election Central website at www.shawlocal.com/election.

Both candidates cited national and local upheaval spurred by the death of George Floyd in May which set off a reckoning on race, policing and criminal justice reform as pivotal to the election this year, and spoke on their platforms as it relates to the state's attorney's office in DeKalb County.

Rick Amato, Republican

Rick Amato, of Sycamore, is running for a second term as DeKalb County State's Attorney. A graduate of Northern Illinois University, Amato has practiced law since 2003 when he worked as an assistant state's attorney in the DeKalb County State's Attorney's office. In 2004, he opened his own private law firm working as a criminal defense attorney based in DeKalb County until 2016, when he ran for DeKalb County State's Attorney and won, defeating incumbent Richard Schmack.

"I found the rest of my life here in DeKalb County," Amato said. He met his wife, Renee, of Cortland and together they have three children. He's running for a second term to continue serving the county, and said his initiatives to overhaul the office in his first term include an emphasis on justice, fairness, public safety and accountability.

"Through our first four years, I believe we've done that," Amato said.

He cited multiple programs his office has created over the past four years to address low-level offenses and remediate those faced with charges related to drug and mental illness. The felony review program, felony diversion, and the Stacia Hollinshead Veterans Program -- named after Stacia Hollinshead, a DeKalb County Assistant State's Attorney who in March of 2019 was brutally murdered by her ex-husband in front of their daughter after suffering years of custody battles, stalking and abuse, according to DeKalb County court records.

In conjunction with the DeKalb Police Department, Project HOPE has so far helped 14 people tackle drug addiction, Amato said. The program allows those facing addiction to turn in their drugs to authorities -- "with no coercion of charges, absolute none," Amato said -- and in turn are put into rehabilitation immediately, a safer and more lasting form of rehab than jail.

Amato said in his second term, he'd like to focus on the county's toughest crime, including violent crime and domestic violence, specifically repeat offenders. Domestic violence comes in many forms, he said, including stalking and harassment, and can lead to homicide. He said the state's attorney's office needs to build more cooperative measures with law enforcement in the community so residents trust police enough to come to them for help.

"That's our county's number one problem when it comes to criminal cases," he said. "Everyday, sometimes multiple times a day, we're having five to 15 domestic violence cases a week. There's always children that are observing abuse. We need to continue to build programs to serve our victims."

Amato supports cash bail reform that's occurred in the county since 2015, he said, including a pretrial release program which screens those charged to better assess their risk to reoffend and grant them release on their signature instead of jail time.

"We do not have people held on low level offenses," Amato said. "Our recognizance release rates are extremely high. We have an average daily jail population of 100. That's the lowest level of incarceration since 2005."

When asked what can be done to ensure DeKalb County residents, regardless of socioeconomic status, race or gender, have equal access to the justice system, Amato said they already do in many ways.

"The lower income population is represented through our court system," Amato said, adding the state supreme court has mandated it. He said he's calling for a "full system review," of adult cases to better assess why a big population of those who end up in the system are of low income.

"A lot of that becomes generational," he said. "Lack of educational opportunities, employment. They need to know the system works fair and works fair for them. Can it improve? Absolutely it can improve. But in these 17 years, I've seen fair and equal treatment."

When asked when a state's attorney should get involved in matters of police accountability, Amato said "Every day."

In light of local calls over the summer as Black Lives Matter groups marched their way around DeKalb County calling for changes and racial equity in policing, Amato said he worked this summer with DeKalb, Sycamore and Northern Illinois University police, along with the DeKalb County Sheriff' Office, to review use of force policies.

All four agencies have now banned use of carotid artery holds, and added a "duty to intervene," clause to their policies.

"Duty to intervene would be when some officer is not comfortable with something another officer is doing to an individual, they must intervene," Amato said. "These situations need to go through the state's attorney. It's your duty as the elected official to account to the public."

Amato addressed the grand jury proceedings involving Elonte McDowell, of Aurora, a Black man who was placed in a chokehold by DeKalb Police Sgt. Jeffrey Weese and tazed on the ground by a DeKalb County Sheriff's Deputy during a traffic stop in August of 2019 after police received a tip McDowell was selling marijuana.

The arrest gained national attention as McDowell yelled, "I can't breathe," as seen on cell phone video captured live. Weese was placed on desk duty pending an investigation by the Illinois State Police, which was handed to Amato's office to review.

Amato brought in an outside investigator as well and a forensic police doctor, since he said the ISP investigation was "incomplete," because they were not able to correspond with McDowell about the arrest. In December of 2019, a DeKalb County grand jury declined to press criminal charges against Weese. In February, after an internal investigation by the DeKalb police department, Weese was placed on unpaid suspension for up to 30 days, ordered to undergo cultural competency training and prohibited from being promoted for a year.

Amato stands by his procedures, and did not say whether he agrees with the grand jury's decision or not. He said his office has in the past charged "at least two police officers when the duty comes."

"I commend our community for their concerns, it shows that this is not acceptable," Amato said. "This is not a usual behavior and its alarming to everybody, and it has been from the day that it happened."

Anna Wilhelmi, Democrat

Anna Wilhelmi, of Earville, has been practicing law since 1996, when she graduated from NIU's law school. She said she has a strong criminal law background and is currently a real estate attorney with offices in Aurora. She said she was asked to run, and though she's not run for elected office before, decided to take the plunge after the death of U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland).

"Before he died, he said, 'What did we did in 2019 to keep our democracy in tact?'" Wilhelmi recalled. "And his words really resonated with me, and he changed my mind. So I decided to run."

Throughout her interview, Wilhelmi emphasized the most pressing issue facing the DeKalb County State's Attorney's Office is a systemic problem with race, and said racial inequity and a distrust of police fosters further victimization, including among those who suffer at the hands of domestic violence.

"It's not just the state's attorney's office," she said. "It's law enforcement, it's the judicial system. So you have a situation where the police are de-legitimizing the justice system right from the get go. We have to pay attention to them because it hurts our community. We need them [police] for violent crime. So we have to address those issues first and foremost."

She said the DeKalb County State's Attorney should hold law enforcement officers accountable when it comes to use of lethal force during arrests.

She said the office should document demographic data to show who is being arrested for what, adding "it's supposed to be colorblind law."

Like Amato, Wilhelmi supports cash bail reform.

"Cash bail is discriminatory on its face," she said. "There's other means to make sure someone comes to court." She said those with more money are able to post bail and that doesn't necessarily keep the community safe.

When asked what can be done to ensure DeKalb County residents, regardless of socioeconomic status, race or gender, have equal access to the justice system, Wilhelmi said the state's attorney's office should work with other agencies to address systemic issues that are often interrelated (but not the cause of) crime, such as poverty.

She said she doesn't support School Resources Officers or police in schools, and believes many aspects of the criminal justice system, including the juvenile justice system, are disproportionately impacting people of color.

When asked when a state's attorney should get involved in matters of police accountability, Wilhelmi said "All the time."

"The state's attorney's job is to make sure that the police are obeying the law," she said.

Wilhelmi called for the state's attorney to get directly involved in matters of use of force in policing.

"Excessive use of force is not obeying the law," she said. "It's very difficult for someone to file a complaint against the police. This is not something that people just willy nilly do. The state's attorney's office has to scrutinize the behavior of the police when they are in the wrong."

Wilhelmi also spoke on McDowell's arrest, and said in situations like that, the state's attorney -- who also has obligations to defend DeKalb County government in court -- could elect to designate a special prosecutor instead, which would be done by petitioning a judge to appoint them.

"The community hurts right now based on that incident, they are not over that incident," Wilhelmi said. "It's something that could have resulted in death here in little DeKalb County. And it is such a big consequence for human beings, when you have someone who is to protect a serve use lethal force on someone who we know is unarmed and not a threat. So it becomes traumatizing over and over until the issue is resolved."