Today our co-founding attorney Jonathan James was successful in arguing a preliminary hearing on behalf of our client in Stephenson County. In Illinois, before the State may proceed on felony charges, it must first have a probable cause determination hearing. The State has the option of either empaneling a grand jury or conducting a preliminary hearing to satisfy this requirement.
At a preliminary hearing, the State is only required to present minimal evidence in order to show the court they have probable cause to proceed forward with the felony charges. Additionally, the rules of evidence are relaxed and the defense is not provided with discovery in advance of the hearing. Because the burden is so low and the Defense does not know what evidence will be presented, these hearings are often won by the prosecution. However, this morning, Attorney Jonathan James was able to successfully cross examine the prosecution’s witnesses about the evidence they had collected against our client, and the court returned a finding of no probable cause. This means that all felony charges that were pending against our client were dismissed.
Our client was facing a class 2 felony and class 4 felony that have a sentencing range of 3 to 7 years in prison and 1 to 3 years in prison respectively. Since the charges are dismissed, our client is now home with his family.
