Career prosecutor swaps sides of aisle, becomes defense attorney

A familiar face is back walking the hallways of the McHenry County courthouse -- only now he's in a very unfamiliar role.

Jim McAuliff, a career prosecutor and former chief of the McHenry County State's Attorney's criminal division, returned to the Woodstock courts building this month as a private-practice attorney whose caseload will include some criminal defense work.

That's quite a shift for McAuliff who, after spending the better part of the past three decades putting suspected criminals behind bars, will now be working on their behalves.

"After 30 years as a prosecutor, it's going to be an adjustment," McAuliff admitted earlier this month.

"But as a prosecutor your job still is to protect the rights of the accused, so (being a defense lawyer) is a different side of the same coin."

McAuliff worked in the McHenry County State's Attorney's office from 1993 to 2005, prosecuting some of the area's most notorious felons. Among the criminals he put behind bars were Edward Milka, who was convicted of the 1997 abduction and murder of his niece; and Douglas Vitailoi, who was found guilty of killing a Crystal Lake store owner because of his Japanese heritage.

McAuliff resigned from the state's attorney's office in 2005 to take a similar post with the Cook County State's Attorney's office. Having formally retired from that position at the end of 2007, McAuliff hooked up with the Harvard-based law practice of John Gaffney.

Besides criminal defense work, McAuliff said he expects to take on a number of civil court cases.

Employee recognition: McHenry County State's Attorney Louis Bianchi is in the midst of a heated campaign to retain his job through next month's Republican Party primary, but he took the time this month to recognize a pair of his employees for recent milestone achievements.

Bianchi announced that Donna Kelly, an assistant state's attorney and member of his special prosecutions unit, recently was certified as a member of the Capital Litigation Trial Bar by the Illinois Supreme Court.

The certification makes Kelly one of just four attorneys practicing in McHenry County who are capable of serving as lead counsel on a death-penalty case. Fellow assistant state's attorney Nichole Owens is among the others.

"She's a highly qualified attorney," Bianchi said of Kelly. "She's earned this."

The state created the Capital Litigation Bar in 2001 after a spate of death-penalty convictions were overturned, including that of Richmond resident Gary Gauger. The purpose of the program is to ensure that attorneys taking on a capital case -- whether as a prosecutor or a defense lawyer -- have adequate training, experience and education to do so competently.

That Gauger case, perhaps not coincidentally, was the last time McHenry County authorities have tried to impose the death penalty.

Also getting recognition was Sara Signor, one of the office's two victim-witness coordinators, for her certification through the National Organization for Victim Assistance.

Signor is the first victim advocate in McHenry County to receive the certification.

"It brings added quality and competency to our office," Bianchi said.

Signor came to the state's attorney's office in 2006 from the McHenry County Child Advocacy Center.