Felony filings were up last year in Kane County, with Kane County State’s Attorney Joe McMahon saying a “significant spike” in drug crimes is the reason.
The state’s attorney’s narcotics unit reported about 42 percent more new cases in 2017 than the year before.
“What caught my attention is that is a significant spike from 2016,” McMahon said “…This is alarming to me, it’s concerning to me.”
For the second year in a row, the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office overall authorized more felony cases than the year before, McMahon said.
The reversal of what was a multi-year downward trend “is something that we’re certainly watching,” McMahon said.
County prosecutors screened 2,646 investigations for felony charges, up from 2,626 in 2016; 2,533 in 2015; and 2,623 in 2014, according to information their office provided.
Of those, they authorized felony charges in 2,413 cases — a 6.6 percent increase from 2016, and the most new felonies in five years, according to the State’s Attorney’s Office annual report.
Kane County also saw 4,537 new misdemeanor files in 2017, a 7 percent decrease from 2016, according to the annual report.
McMahon said the increase in felonies doesn’t reflect a change in their approach to charging, but the growing presence of certain drugs in Kane County.
Of 2017’s felony cases, 447 were narcotics cases in which the most serious offense was drug-related, according to the annual report. That includes trafficking, possession, possession with intent to deliver, or delivery of controlled substances and marijuana.
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Cocaine was involved in about 48 percent of those narcotics cases, while 18 percent involved heroin and 12 percent involved marijuana, according to the annual report.
The county coroner reported 67 opioid-related deaths last year, which McMahon noted is equal to 2014 and 2015 combined. McMahon continued to refer to narcotics as a public health concern.
The most felony calls of the county’s 34 police agencies last year came from Aurora police, which had 742, according to the annual report. Elgin had 634. Carpentersville had 195; the sheriff had 190; St. Charles had 176; and Batavia had 132. The other agencies all had fewer than 70 felony calls screened each, according to the report.
Fewer people in 2017 applied and graduated from the county’s “deferred prosecution,” or diversion, programs, than in 2016, the report states. The programs include first-time nonviolent felony or misdemeanor offenders with no prior convictions, misdemeanor drug and alcohol, domestic violence, prostitution/solicitation, and felony drug. In 2017, 579 defendants applied, 383 graduated and 135 terminated, compared with 677 applicants, 434 graduates and 116 terminations in 2016; and 767 applicants, 451 graduates and 175 terminations in 2015, according to the annual report.
McMahon said the diversion programs have “remarkable success” in changing behavior. Long-term, he said, they’re better for the community, and don’t mark graduates with what he called “that scarlet letter of a felony conviction” for the rest of their lives.
Illegal guns are still a problem in Kane County, McMahon said, noting that his office has been working with local and federal agencies on the issue. In 2017, he said, that work “really bore some fruit,” referencing notable operations in Elgin and Aurora, including a months-long investigation between the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Aurora police that resulted in charges against 22 gang members accused of illegal gun sales and drug deliveries.
In the last quarter of 2017, Aurora police increased their focus on gang-related shootings, and during one four-week period in the fall they seized 10 unlawfully possessed guns, McMahon said.