Dan Bute, longtime public defender and judge, 'made the practice of law interesting every day'

La Salle County’s longtime public defender, who retired as traffic judge in 2016, died early Monday. Judge Daniel J. Bute was 69.

Bute practiced law in La Salle County nearly 40 years and had a role in some of the most high-profile cases in the history of Starved Rock Country. As a lawyer he defended a number of killers including Jeffrey Rissley, who murdered 6-year-old Kahla Lansing of Spring Valley, and Ralph Syverson, the former state trooper who shot his estranged wife’s lover, along with Joseph Cichon, a Streator physician who sexually abused patients with a hidden camera rolling.

Bute didn’t shy from tough cases when installed as a judge in 2005, either. As a family judge he inaugurated “Deadbeat Dad Day,” squeezing back child support by threatening to jail fathers on the cusp of Christmas, and then presided over the case of one of the Westclox arsonists.

“Danny was a dear friend, an outstanding lawyer and an excellent judge,” said Ottawa defense attorney Darrell Seigler. “He made the practice of law interesting every day, going at it with skill and fierce dedication. But first and foremost he was a fine friend. We worked hard, with and against each other over the years, but always made sure to have good times as well. He will be sorely missed.”

Streator-born Bute was a prankster who nearly got expelled from the University of Illinois after flooding the floor of his dormitory with a fire hose. He buckled down at John Marshall Law School and graduated with distinction.

Bute and classmate John Cantlin started a law practice after graduating in 1977. Bute’s first intention was to make his living in estate planning. Early on, however, a desperate couple asked him to defend their daughter who’d been caught escaping from the Dwight women’s prison. At trial, Bute argued the inmate had no choice but to escape the inhumane conditions and, to the surprise of all, got an acquittal.

“He had one of the best legal minds and was one of the best criminal defense lawyers I’ve ever known,” Cantlin said. “He had great common sense and was down to earth and he will be greatly missed.”

Bute soon joined the public defender’s office and briefly entered private practice. Upon discovering most of his clients were broke, he phoned Public Defender Jim Brusatte and asked for his job back in the PD’s office. Brusatte happily took him back.

“He was kind, he was bright, he was funny as Hades and wonderfully irreverent,” said Brusatte, now a retired judge.

Bute was often irreverent in open court, tweaking fellow lawyers along the way. Ottawa defense attorney Ed Kuleck nicknamed Bute “the Master of Disaster” for his carefully-timed outbursts and his knack for throwing prosecutors off their game.

“He was a trickster,” Kuleck said. “He would go into the courtroom and he would fill his carts with books just to confuse the prosecutors. They’d be freaked out and wonder what he was up to.”

Bute applied for the bench in 2005 when Judge William R. Banich died and left a post in the family division. As a criminal specialist who hadn’t tried a divorce case in a dozen years, he figured he’d never get the job. But the circuit judges had respected Bute’s legal skills and decided he could catch up on family law changes enacted since he’d quit the side practice. It only took him a month.

Bute won nods of approval for his common-sense approach and for squeezing back child support out of wayward fathers. Bute would schedule compliance hearings close to Dec. 25 — “Deadbeat Dad Day,” he cheekily called it — and tell litigants to pay up or spend Christmas in jail. Mothers who hadn’t seen a dime in months shared in $34,000 that Bute collected on a single day in 2009.

Bute enjoyed his six years in family court and was inclined to stay, but Judge William Balestri's retirement in 2011 left circuit judges in need of an experienced criminal judge to handle traffic and juvenile cases. Bute accepted the transfer to the traffic division, clearing the way for the appointment of Judge Karen C. Eiten to his spot in family court.

“He was a pleasure to appear in front of,” Eiten said. “He had a sense of humor, but he also had an innate sense of right and wrong. He was very-relatable. He was a man of the people, and that enabled him to communicate very well with litigants.”

Bute handled a few spotlight cases in his final post. One of the Westclox arsonists, then 15, dodged a trip to state custody when Bute opted for probation. He urged the youth to complete his community service at fire stations alongside those whose lives he risked.

"And it was indeed stupid," Bute told the teen. "You picked a big-time offense to be introduced to the criminal justice system."

Ottawa attorney Joe Navarro, a former state's attorney and close friend of Bute's, said Bute could be unorthodox but he was always fair.

"He was a breath of fresh air," Navarro said. "His judicial temperament was not typical, but but he moved the cases and got along with everyone."

Bute retired from the bench in 2016 and swore he was done practicing law, but he was coaxed out of retirement a few times. In 2018, he secured acquittal for Tammy Tieman, a former Marquette Academy teacher accused of hitting students. In 2019, he helped get former state’s attorney Brian Towne’s charges thrown out over a speedy-trial rights violation.

Ottawa Funeral Home is handling arrangements.