Candidates for Kendall County State’s Attorney speak at meet and greet event

Candidates for Kendall County State’s Attorney spoke at a meet and greet event on Oct. 7 hosted by the Oswego Area Chamber of Commerce and the Kendall County Bar Association.

Along with being a meet and greet event, candidates were given two minutes to speak to those attending the event, held at Bauman Family Funeral Home in Oswego. Oswego Area Chamber of Commerce Board Chairman Rick Warner, who also is a local attorney, thanked those in attendance.

“As a member of the Chamber of Commerce for Oswego, I think it’s really important that we take stock in our community, that we get involved in our community,” Warner said.

He said the idea behind the meet and greet was to “meet each other as neighbors.” Among those at the event were those candidates running for Kendall County Circuit Clerk and Kendall County State’s Attorney.

Kendall County State’s Attorney

Democrat Jose Villagrana, who is a Kendall County Sheriff patrol deputy and a practicing attorney, is challenging Republican incumbent Eric Weis for the position.

“With this unparalleled police and legal experience, I am uniquely qualified for this elected position,” Villagrana said. “I know how an arrest is made. None of my arrests have ever been questioned. These were good arrests based on the facts and the law.”

Villagrana said he would apply his 25 years of law enforcement experience to the position.

If elected, Villagrana said he would lead the office with “good, clean prosecutions, without fear or favor of anyone.”

Weis was first elected to the position of Kendall County State’s Attorney in 2006. He began his legal career with the Kendall County State’s Attorney’s Office in 1995 and was sworn in as an assistant state’s attorney in 1997.

“With me, you know what you get,” Weis said. “You get a proven, experienced prosecutor.”

He ticked off a list of accomplishment under his tenure.

“For the last 18 years, we have done many programs to take Kendall County to the next level,” Weis said. “We have our own child advocacy center, which we did not have when I took office. We’ve taken a unique approach to domestic violence by creating the first ever domestic violence response team. That domestic violence response team advocates for victims and provides resources for victims of domestic violence.”

In addition, he said his office created the Kendall County Juvenile Justice Council to address issues with juvenile crime and juvenile truancy “to keep kids from coming into the court system.”