Academy students learn what happens after an arrest
The most recent session of Schaumburg's Citizens Police Academy was all about the Cook County court system -- what happens after people are arrested and charged.
Academy students heard about the courts from the perspective of judges, prosecutors and those who handle crimes involving kids.
Juvenile law: Remember those two junior high girls arrested for shoplifting at Woodfield during my patrol ride-along last week?
Schaumburg Detective Bill Morris of the juvenile investigations unit explained how their cases could be handled.
Being under 17, they won't go through adult court but could be released to their parents for a supervision period.
While steps can be taken to purge such arrests from certain records, they're always there for people who know where to look, Morris said. It wasn't an idle scare tactic that they'd have to answer "yes" for the rest of their lives to the question of whether they'd ever been arrested.
But most prospective employees and the like actually ask if someone has been convicted, he said. If these girls avoid further trouble, they can probably avoid a conviction on their original arrest.
Morris' division also takes part in cases in which juveniles are the victims.
View from the judges' seat: Cook County Circuit Court Judges John Scotillo and Margarita Kulys Hoffman gave the class their perspectives on their responsibilities.
They explained the mixture of appointed and elected judges. They fall on opposite sides of the coin: Scotillo is an appointed judge and Kulys Hoffman elected.
Scotillo underscored what he believes is the importance of retaining qualified judges at election time. He said this should be the preferred default for voters who don't feel they know anything about the names on the ballot, rather than leaving those judicial races blank on their ballots.
He also spoke of the importance of judges maintaining a professional distance from prosecutors whom they might share courtrooms with more often than defense attorneys.
Representing the people: Assistant State's Attorney Mark Javier explained the role of his office in court and cleared up some common misperceptions about it.
One of the biggest, he said, is that a prosecutor's main role is to be a crime victim advocate. On the contrary, the state's attorney's office is there to represent the people of Illinois and enforce their laws.
From Javier's perspective, prosecutors bear a broader duty than defense attorneys. While the defense's responsibility ends at representing a defendant's interests, the state must seek the truth and produce all evidence whether it helps or hurts prosecution.