Local admin. court vs. circuit court?

How do the Woodstock police officers decide whether to cite an offender/violation into Woodstock's own Administrative Adjudication Court or into McHenry County Circuit Court? There must be some rules, regulations or guidelines at the P.D.

Do certain types of cases require a ticket on a State charge and into Circuit Court?
Do some types of cases always go to the local court?
Do some cases get assigned to one court or the other because of WPD guidelines?
Does the officer have the choice ("discretion") in some cases?
How does the officer decide whether to charge the person under a local ordinance or the State law?

Last September there were charges against a 20-year-old man who had two prior under-age alcohol convictions in circuit court. In September he was charged with a third under-age alcohol charge and with assaulting a cop. Rather than charging him under the State law, which would have allowed the State's Attorney's office to prosecute him, the Woodstock Police charged him under a local ordinance and used the Woodstock City Attorney's office to prosecute him.  His attorney entered an early plea and negotiated a fast deal to get him out from under the court's thumb (and that of the Woodstock Police Department).

A DUI case was filed about a month ago by WPD, and the driver was charged with violating a local ordinance, not the State DUI law. So the Woodstock City Attorney will prosecute that one, too, not the State's Attorney's office. Will Woodstock hold out for a 364-day sentence? There is a good reason to do so.

The local monthly Woodstock Administrative Adjudication Court may be the right place for certain cases; ex., truancy, open-burning, junk cars in the front yard, skateboarding on the Square, dogs in the Park in the Square. Those are probably open-and-shut cases.

But what about a case where the defendant pleads Not Guilty (actually, Not Liable)? Yes, he can have an attorney. One of the big problems, though, is that the City doesn't have to produce its witness, the police officer or the Code Enforcement officer.

As I understand it, Administrative Judge David Eterno can rely solely on written statements (report and ticket) submitted by a police officer, and the cop doesn't have to be in court. Thus, the defendant gets no opportunity to confront his accuser.

This might work to the advantage of a knowledgeable defendant or one who brings in a good lawyer. Sufficient doubt of guilty (or liability) might be raised in the judge's mind to result in a "Not Liable" finding. But that doubt has to be more than 50%. In other words, the judge will find a defendant in Administrative Adjudication Court "liable" (guilty), if he believes there is a "preponderance of evidence" against the defendant. A "preponderance" is 51%. (The measurement is not "beyond a reasonable doubt".)

If a defendant is found "liable" (guilty) in Woodstock's court, he can appeal to the McHenry County Circuit Court.

There are pros and cons to Woodstock's local court. One of the big pluses for Woodstock is that it keeps all the money at home. Now that the Woodstock City Council has raised the minimum fine for some charges to $500, one can expect revenues from the local court to take a big jump.

The question of where an officer puts the case (circuit court or local court) becomes even more important and gives higher credence to the claims of some that tickets are just a revenue-generating scheme of a City.

A "plus" for a defendant is that charges in municipal court don't show up in public records at the McHenry County Courthouse where anyone, including employers (current or prospective) and school admissions clerks, can view them.