DuPage public defender leaves after 17 years of service

Late one night, Elizabeth Reed walked through a gang-infested Addison apartment complex with a camera.

A 16-year-old boy faced a murder rap. Witnesses said they saw his face despite the veil of darkness. It was Reed's job to ensure they were telling the truth.

For 17 years, the senior assistant DuPage County public defender worked passionately to protect the rights of the poor in criminal court. She ended that phase of her career Tuesday to begin a new adventure in private practice.

The daughter of an immigrant with a sixth-grade education who ran his own produce business, Reed saw firsthand while growing up in Chicago Heights how difficult life could be for those who struggle.

It was her father who inspired Reed to be a lawyer. She was hired in DuPage County in 1991, when her oldest son was in kindergarten. He starts law school this year.

"Liz Reed is one of our finest trial lawyers," DuPage Public Defender Robert Miller said. "She recently had a streak of seven consecutive felony trial wins, which by anyone's standards, is a mark of excellence. She is a respected attorney, not only for her courtroom talent and knowledge of the law, but also because she is very personable."

Reed said protecting people's rights never got old for her. From the onset, she held prosecutors to the high legal standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

Reed vividly recalls her first felony trial. A Bulgarian doctor seeking political asylum here was accused of rape while working as a live-in nurse for an ill elderly woman.

There was no physical evidence. The woman was inconsistent. The jury acquitted Reed's client.

"It's exhilarating when you believe in your client and you win," Reed said. "You see that the justice system works."

Years later, a Wheaton Warrenville South student raised by a single mother faced a felony for shoving past a dean while trying to calm his younger brother, who was in special education classes, during a school dispute.

Prosecutors offered to reduce the charge to a misdemeanor, but the teen was adamant about going to trial to prove his innocence.

Reed told the all-white jury that the black teen was raised to always protect his brother. The jury, which agreed the physical contact was unintentional, acquitted.

But the People vs. Mercedes Roman proved to be a defining moment in Reed's career.

In law-and-order DuPage County, Reed convinced a jury to acquit the young Bensenville mother with an IQ of 72 of murdering her baby, instead opting for involuntary manslaughter, for the accidental 1999 suffocation death.

"Juries like her because she is very open and honest," said DuPage Circuit Judge Robert Anderson, in whose courtroom Reed was assigned. "She doesn't say things that she can't back up with evidence. She also does a very good job at bringing out the human quality of a defendant's life in ways that can be very impactful."

Of course, not all defendants are sympathetic. Reed helped represent Jacqueline Annette Williams, one of three people serving a life prison term for the 1995 Addison triple murder in which a baby survived being cut from its slain mother's womb.

"We'll never know exactly what happened," Reed said. "She'd never admit anything except to being there."

Earlier this year, she tried in vain to convince a jury to spare the life of Eric Hanson, the Naperville man convicted of killing his parents, sister and brother-in-law, after his credit card fraud scheme unraveled.

Reed first sought out the counsel of her priest, who helped her make a plea for mercy.

After 17 years, Reed said she's ready for a new challenge. Today, she joins the Wheaton law firm of Nadler, Pritikin & Mirabelli.

Though the move is bittersweet, Reed said she's accomplished what she set out to do.

"I wanted to show the indigent that there are people who care about their rights as human beings and that they won't be treated any worse because they don't have money."