Kendall County felony, misdemeanor charges show slight drop amid pandemic

Total charges filed by the Kendall County State’s Attorney’s Office fell in 2020, with felony and misdemeanor indictments dropping by 6% and 16% respectively, according to a report released by the office Tuesday, Jan. 19.

The county filed 388 felony indictments in 2020. For comparison, 414 were filed in 2019 and 436 the previous year.

Yet final figures for the county’s legal system clocked in far better than he anticipated, State’s Attorney Eric Weis said at a county board meeting on Tuesday morning.

“Realistically it was almost a negligible amount,” Weis told county commissioners. “When you look at the numbers, and if you factor COVID-19 (stay-at-home orders) for probably two of those months, we were right where we should have been.”

In addition, the State’s Attorney’s office received 624 requests for legal review from the county government, up 100 over the previous year. Weis remarked that the pandemic as well as sweeping changes to last year’s general election accounted for the increase.

“We had a lot of questions with (County Clerk Debbie Gillette) going back and forth in a great way to make sure the election process was following the law,” Weis said. “With the changes going into effect on a short notice basis, with no prior experience of doing this, with people telling our office this is how it should be done and that’s not actually what the law says - we had a lot of time spent making sure we were complying.”

The State’s Attorney’s Office also announced it helped collect $278,000 in statutory court fees and an additional $120,000 in outstanding fines.

“For Fiscal Year 2020, the Kendall County State’s Attorney’s Office was again under budget while still providing the elected officials and department heads of Kendall County with professional and timely legal advice and representation, and maintaining our continued commitment to seek justice for the people of Kendall County in the prosecution of criminal cases.”