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Name: Andrew Sosnowski
Party: Republican
Why did you choose law as a profession? What in your legal experience best qualifies you to be Kane County State’s Attorney?
- 35 years as a practicing attorney in Kane County and surrounding Illinois
- 20 years prosecuting Illinois violent crimes: from death penalty murder, rape and gang crimes to juvenile cases, and misdemeanors
- Co-Founder of the Kane County Child Advocacy Center
- Co-Author of the Illinois Juvenile Court Act and Domestic Violence Legislation
- Criminal Law Professor at Elgin Community College for 24 years
- Senior Lecturer in Criminal Law at Aurora University
- Criminal Law professor Columbia College Missouri and Judson University
- Former Deputy General Counsel of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, serving 60 of the 102 counties in Illinois
- General Counsel of a National Bureau dealing with complex litigation involving the FBI, CIA, Interpol and all local police around the United States
- Private Litigation Attorney with my own practice in Elgin, Illinois
Why are you the better candidate for Kane County State’s Attorney?
The State’s Attorney has a great deal of discretion in charging and prosecuting cases in Kane County. The decisions he makes can affect the very fabric of our communities. The current Kane County State’s Attorney, by her own admission (see PODCAST JUST A COUPLA GUYS) states that violent crime has grown in Kane County under her leadership. Violent crimes are plea-bargained to lesser crimes. The State’s Attorney’s weakness in prosecuting crime has rendered our streets less safe. Recently a violent stabbing murder in broad daylight in a residential Elgin neighborhood left the community terrified. The defendant is a gang member (Anderson Contreras) who was caught and released for two previous violent crimes within a month of the murder because of weak charging and prosecution by the current Kane County State’s Attorney. Another example is a probation plea for a man who violently beat his mother to death with a baseball bat in Campton Hills (Thomas Summerwill – prosecutors stated ‘the beating was with such force that brain matter was found all over the scene’.)
As State’s Attorney I will track violent crimes in our neighborhoods, study the sources of crimes, work with communities and law enforcement and prosecute violent crimes to the full extent of the law. As I travel the county, law enforcement and private citizens have plead with me to stop the violent crime trajectory in the county and I will use my resources to do just that.
What do you think are the three biggest challenges the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office will face during the next term and what solutions would you propose?
(1) Growing violent crime
a. CRIME VICTIMS will be the number one priority in my administration
b. As Kane County State’s Attorney, I will personally review each violent crime and meet with the families. I will ensure that my prosecutors are equipped to prosecute these cases by providing robust training and resources necessary to prosecute these cases to the full extent of the law.
c. Before cases are unilaterally plea-bargained, I will consider the impact of the victims and their families.
d. Juvenile Courts will be studied and reviewed since many of the youngsters involved in these courts are the next generation of adult criminals. By providing resources and working with local community organizations, we can begin to seek true criminal justice reform.
(2) Laws that are born in Chicago and Springfield that do not serve our communities
a. As the lead prosecutor in the 3rd largest county in Illinois, I will work with legislators and push back on laws that will render our communities less safe, like the pre-trial fairness portion of the SAFE-T Act.
b. In my administration we will have legislative liaisons that will work closely with State and local legislators to prevent BAD LAWS from coming to our communities. These law handcuff law enforcement and cannot be tolerated in a civilized society.
(3) Growing homelessness, mental illness and drug use
a. As the current Chairman of the Elgin Township Mental Health Board, I have seen homelessness, mental illness and drug use rise in our communities. Because of lack of resources, many local and state organizations are ill equipped to tackle these complex issues. I will work closely with the organizations to request proper funding.
What is the most important goal you want to accomplish if elected?
(1) Human Trafficking and Exploitation Center – As the former General Counsel of a complex, data driven organization that worked with FBI and CIA, I will bring resources to Kane County to track and prosecute these cases. As migrants from other countries enter our state, they are subject to exploitation. Many young men and women are exploited by massage parlors and exotic dance establishments. We must investigate exploitation. The current State’s Attorney accepts campaign contributions from exotic dance establishments to invest in her campaign. This raises a serious concern about conflicts of interest and raises the appearance of impropriety. This will not happen under my watch. The people deserve better.
(2) Prosecutor training – many prosecutors are elevated to courtrooms before they are ready and this leads to increases in plea bargains and is a disservice to our communities and our safety.
(3) As the attorney for all county officials, I will make sure the civil division of the State’s Attorneys office is well equipped to handle complex cases and protect and serve our county officials. Recently, my opponent was involved in a first amendment catastrophe where her assistant gave different advice than her employee. When caught with this, the State’s Attorney threw the County Board Chairman and her assistant under the bus and sided with the civilians that called out the first amendment issue. This is an example of poor leadership and poor policies that affect the smooth operation of our government. I will ensure that the civil division has resources to conduct business efficiently to prevent these issues.
Do you believe you can serve your constituents in a bipartisan manner? Why or why not?
I have never seen government as RED or BLUE. Those tired declinations do not serve anyone and are inefficient to the smooth operation of any office. I am a fiercely independent lawyer as evidence by my bi-partisan support in our county. As your Chief Law Enforcement Officer for Kane County, I will be fair and just to all people. When making prosecutorial decisions, I will only review the facts and relevant circumstances.
The Pretrial Fairness Act has been in effect for a little over a year. How do you think it has affected criminal justice in Kane County?
Unfortunately, because the current State’s Attorney wants to get re-elected, we do not get the full facts on the horrendous consequences of this law. The Pretrial Fairness Act sounds great by title, I mean who can argue that we need to be fair when setting parameters for the release of individuals who are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
But it is a Cook County law that may serve their community but not ours. As evidence by the recent murder of Sunday Ogunjimi where his killer was released by the pretrial fairness act without any services, without and intervention; truly a “catch and release”. I have spoken to law enforcement officers involved in many of the decisions and they were aghast at how the current Kane State’s Attorney handled this “ticking time bomb”.
The current Kane County State’s Attorney thinks “tweaks” to the current law will make it better. No! This law takes away needed discretion by the courts to effectively do their job.
This will only get worse and as your next Kane County I will ask the Governor to put a moratorium on this law as it affects safety in our collar counties.
Recently our close neighbor in the north, McHenry County, published REAL STATISICS of the disasters of the pretrial fairness act. The statistics in Kane are most likely worse, as evidenced by recent statements from the former Chief Judge who stated in an recent interview that we are beginning to see more and more people who are released not coming back to court’.
This is absurd and the beginning of lawlessness in our communities. Kane County never had the issues in our jails that Cook County has.