Christian County State's Attorney John Mcward, filed an emergency motion on Friday seeking a temporary stay on the implementation of the no cash bail portion that is set to take effect tomorrow. After hearing the motion, Judge Brian Kibler agreed with the State's Attorney's position that it was found unconstitutional in Kankakee County and that irreparable injuries to defendants and citizens of Christian County would result if Christian County implemented the no cash bail.
Multiple counties in Central Illinois had already joined up with the Kankakee County lawsuit including Shelby, Sangamon, Fayette, Moultrie, and Montgomery County. The Court on Friday, issued the temporary stay banning the implementation of the no cash bail portion and a hearing will take place next Friday, January 6th, 2023.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul on Friday issued the following statement in response to what he has called improperly entered temporary restraining orders that were sought Friday by some state’s attorneys who were seeking to prevent enforcement of the SAFE-T Act. Attorney General Raoul says that his office learned of new complaints throughout the state against the Safe-T Act. He says he is very frustrated that these counties waited to the last minute to file injunctions. He also says that some counties are filing motions against the entire act--which has been in place since January 1st, 2021. Christian County is only challenging the no cash bail and not the other aspects of the Safe-T Act.
“In some of these TRO motions, plaintiffs are asking that the Attorney General’s office be enjoined from enforcing any provision of the SAFE-T Act, not just the pretrial release provisions. Many of these provisions have been in effect for more than a year; however, my office received less than one hour’s notice of hearings in some counties and no notice at all in others. Throughout the day, we continued to learn of plaintiffs having obtained TROs without giving our office notice or providing copies of the complaints or TRO motions. To say that this is an abuse of the judicial process is an understatement. The SAFE-T Act has been the law in Illinois since January 2021, giving these plaintiffs nearly two years to raise challenges. In fact, the plaintiffs have had since October to join the lawsuits consolidated in Kankakee County. It is outrageous that the plaintiffs instead chose to sit on their hands until the last business day before the SAFE-T Act is to go into effect, and then seek to enjoin it from going into effect.
Attorney General Raoul says that there is an appropriate way to challenge the law but that a lot of counties are doing it the wrong way.
“It goes without saying that there is an appropriate way to challenge a new law. In fact, as their colleagues were engaging in 11th hour theatrics, the state’s attorneys of DuPage and Kane counties filed an emergency motion with the Illinois Supreme Court in which they ask the court to provide some clarity regarding the SAFE-T Act, so that there will be consistent pretrial proceedings throughout Illinois beginning Jan. 1. And because my office has already appealed Judge Cunnington’s order, the appropriate process for seeking a ruling that will apply to all 102 counties is now underway.”
Click here and here to see the Christian County lawsuit and click here to see the full response from Attorney General Kwame Raoul. Any questions or concerns related to this issue are directed to call the Christian County State's Attorney's Office at 217-824-4747.
