Gurnee village prosecutor who emphasized DUI cases retires

Gurnee Mayor Kristina Kovarik says village residents can thank a low-profile attorney for helping to keep the village's roads safe.

Dennis Daly, who has retired after 39 years as Gurnee's village prosecutor, handled driving under the influence and other traffic cases, along with local ordinance violations.

Gurnee residents could “sleep better at night” during Daly's tenure, Kovarik said, because he placed an emphasis on getting DUI convictions in Lake County circuit court. In 2009, the Illinois chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving recognized Daly, 67, for his work in that area.

“Even though they don't know your name,” Kovarik told Daly during a presentation honoring his service, “you have made a huge difference keeping our roads safe and making us all feel better about not having that (DUI) problem in our town.”

Police Chief Kevin Woodside also lauded Daly for placing an emphasis on securing convictions against drivers who were pulled over on suspicion of being drunk.

“You have helped us establish a reputation throughout the county and throughout the state as being very tough on DUI offenders,” Woodside said.

Daly credited Rita Holloman for showing him the ropes early in his Gurnee career. Holloman was the police chief's secretary 39 years ago and had a reputation of being the village's go-to employee.

He also thanked Kovarik, Woodside and all Gurnee police employees who supported him.

“I'm a court rat,” Daly said. “I just love to go to court. I love to work with the Gurnee police officers.”

While mostly working out of the public eye, Daly wound up in the spotlight in 2006 and 2005.

In 2006, Daly ruled there was no merit to ethics accusations lodged by resident David Grosskopf against then-Mayor Donald Rudny and other officials. Grosskopf, who supported Kovarik's successful bid for mayor, filed the complaint just before she toppled Rudny in April 2005.

And Daly was forced to publicly defend his fees in the wake of complaints from some village trustees about what he charged in 2005. He said at the time his workload increased because Gurnee police were making more DUI arrests, which cost more to prosecute.

Luis Albarran, who has been prosecuting Lake Zurich traffic cases since 2008, will replace Daly as Gurnee's prosecutor. He is considered a leader in Lake County's Latino community.

Albarran, a 20-year Gurnee resident, said he shared a prosecution table with Daly when he handled Lake Zurich cases. He said he'll maintain Gurnee's reputation of being tough on DUI offenders.

“I learned a lot from Dennis,” he said.