With no cash bail in Illinois, those committing crimes are often times presented with a notice to appear and then released, which has then led to many not showing up to their later scheduled court date, explains Warren County State’s Attorney Tom Siegel:
“Most of the time, folks are given a notice to appear and released; property crimes, crimes against society I’ll call them, drug crimes, generally result in an automatic release. Crimes against persons tend to get you detained at least temporarily; aggravated battery, the big one is domestic battery, violations of orders of protection is the other case that will frequently land folks in jail until they see a judge. In the past, we could have had a bond court. Let’s say you get arrested on a Friday night, we could have bond court Saturday morning, the judge would probably set a cash bond, and he would also impose conditions. Now, we can’t impose a stay-a-way. For example, in a domestic battery, there is an automatic 72 hour stay-a-way, but then it goes away. So, what ends up happening is those folks are held in custody until we can gather all of the people into one room and hold a hearing. We are seeing an increase in failure to appears, but honestly, I have not done a count.”
Additionally, Thorn Smith, from Peoria, will be joining the Warren County State’s Attorney Office as an Assistant District Attorney.
