In March of this year Joe Crisara was written a Social Hosting ticket by the Island Lake Police Department and apparently told to cough up the $1,000 fine. He hasn't done so.
The violation was written on a police department local citation and for violating a local ordinance (Code Section 3-2-7-1). Communities like to do it this way, because then they get to keep all the money in town. If they write tickets under Illinois Statutes, the cases go to Circuit Court (in Island Lake cases, either McHenry County or Lake County Circuit Court), and then only a piece of the action comes back to town.
There are some advantages to the person charged - court costs are often lower than in Circuit Court, and any conviction for a finding of "liable" (rather than "guilty") doesn't go on his record.
Woodstock Police write tickets for local ordinance violations, and those cases are handled in the Woodstock Administrative Adjudication Court, which meets monthly.
The problem in Island Lake? They don't have a local court. So how does a person plead Not Guility (Not Liable) and get his day in court? He doesn't.
Island Lake Police write tickets for other ordinance violations, such as parking, curfew violations, minors in possession of tobacco. If the person doesn't pay by the due date, then they send him (or her) a letter. Fines increase if not paid by the Due Date. If the person still doesn't pay, then the tickets go to a collection agency. Except Island Lake doesn't have a collection agency at this time. But where is Due Process in this whole picture. It's AWOL. How can you just send an unpaid ticket to collection?
And with Crisara's Social Hosting ordinance violation, the fine was apparently set at $1,000, but there is no provision for an increased fine if it isn't paid. Although the original newspaper article said Crisara was to be fined $1,000, the ordinance calls for a $500 minimum fine (and maximum fine of $750) for the first offense, and a minimum fine of $750 for the second or subsequent offense within a 12-month period.
Where did the $1,000 come from? Was the charge for a second (or subsequent) offense? Can the officer set the fine? The answer ought to be a resounding "No".
My guess is that Island Lake has no way to carry through on this ticket (and maybe even no way to carry through on any local ordinance ticket) without its own court. With all the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on legal fees, did Island Lake forget to buy some legal advice on this topic?
Crisara has been arrested on drug charges and alleged intimidation (11CF000308 and 11CF000305), and his next court date with Judge Condon in McHenry County Circuit Court is June 1.
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2 comments:
Chief McCorkle will just blame someone else. Blame it on a mistake by the officers, or maybe even blame it on a past employee. That is his style.
He has openly admitted in board meetings that he does not even know the local ordinances, not even the ones that deal with the police department!
That is what you get when you make a part time officer with no experience the chief of police....sad.
Certainly a chief and his officers should know the local ordinances; however, it is the VOIL that is responsible for the operation of the P.D., tickets it issues and how those tickets are processed if they are written as local ordinance violations.
It's flat nuts to let your officers write tickets that the VOIL can't process (without a court). To threaten violators with fines and then with Circuit Court, if they don't pay, has got to be wrong.
Woodstock operates a well-run Administrative Adjudication Court. Island Lake could learn some good lessons by visiting Woodstock's Court.
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