RICO State's Attorney's Office clearing through backlogged cases & More Latest News Here – Up Jobs

ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — Rock Island County State’s Attorney Dora Villarreal said her office has successfully convicted nearly 400 felons since the start of 2022. 

“Through the end of July, our we had approximately 400 felony convictions that had been obtained either by plea or by trial,” Villarreal said. “About 50 of those have been firearm cases. Then, we’ve had about 12 criminal jury trials in or bench trials. So we have been really moving along.”

But, an uptick in violent crime throughout the county has brought new, time-consuming cases into the courtrooms.

“A lot of these have been some of our bigger homicides that we’re trying to work through. Usually, they’re week-long trials, which take up a little bit more time,” said Villarreal. 

New technology has made those cases extend even longer.

“You will have squad cam, or you’ll have body cam, camera; that is hours and hours,” Villarreal said. “We’ve got people with, you know, cell phones, social media, all of these things are information that needs to be pulled, there’s also been a big rise in home surveillance cameras.”

On its own, one normal felony case can usually take up about a terabyte, or 1,000 gigabytes, of data in evidence. 

“We have had an increase in violent crime. But, since we are finally moving along with court, the numbers are going down. So we are catching up,” she said. “And we had, at this time in 2020, we had either 28 or 29 homicides that were awaiting trial. And right now we’re at 23. So and those are really more difficult complex cases, it takes quite a bit of time.”

Villarreal also credits the use of ARPA funds — given to her office by the county board, for helping them move through the backlog of cases. 

“I do believe it’s going to take several years, I don’t think it’s going to be something that, ‘Oh, the backlog is done at the end of 2022,’” she said. “I think it’s going to be several years until we are where we were before.”