The Kane County Domestic Violence Diversion Program

by John D. Ioakimidis, Esq,

In 2010 the Kane County State’s Attorney’s office, in collaboration with Domestic Violence victims rights groups established the first Domestic Violence Diversion Program in Illinois. The main goal of this Diversion Program is to take first-time domestic violence offenders out of the criminal justice system and place them into a program that is designed to prevent them from becoming repeat offenders. Instead of putting them through the criminal justice system and punishing them, this program seeks to treat the causes behind the behavior. Treatment rather than punishment. If an offender successfully completes this program, the case will not be placed on their permanent criminal record. This is very important. While the vast majority of domestic battery cases are misdemeanors that carry a maximum punishment of one year in jail, a guilty plea, or a finding of guilt for a domestic battery, can never be removed from your permanent criminal record.  You cannot receive Court supervision for a Domestic Battery. The only possible sentence for a Domestic Battery is conditional discharge or a misdemeanor conviction. You are not allowed to expunge a Domestic Battery. The consequences of not being able to remove a Domestic Battery from your criminal record should be pretty obvious. If you ever apply for a job, a criminal background search will reveal this case on your record. If you ever apply for an apartment and your landlord performs a background search, they will find this criminal case in your background. If you apply for a loan, a lender may find this case in your background.

Offenders are not automatically eligible for the Domestic Violence Diversion Program. You are ineligible for this program if you have ever had any prior conviction or any type of probation for a Domestic Violence-related offense. You will not be eligible if you are an active gang member or–if your case is eligible to be upgraded to a felony. They will check with the victim and the arresting police officer and if they object to you being admitted into this program, you will not be eligible. You will not be eligible if you are unwilling to admit your guilt. If you threatened or intended to cause physical harm to the victim, you will not be eligible for this program. If the victim required medical treatment, you will not be eligible. Finally, you will not be eligible for this program if it was determined that you used or possessed a deadly weapon during the course of this Domestic Battery or if you have previously participated in this, or a similar, program. This program is strictly for first time offenders.

Once the State Attorney’s Office determined that you are eligible to be placed into this program, you will be instructed to contact the State’s Attorney’s Office so that you can arrange to be interviewed. You will be charged a $25 application fee. If they accept you into this program, you will appear at the next court date and you will plead guilty. Whether or not you are accepted into this program is left to the sole discretion of the State’s Attorney’s Office and you cannot appeal their denial of your acceptance into this program.

If you are accepted into this program, the program will last for a one year period and the total amount of the fines and fees will be $795. You will be required to receive Domestic Violence or Anger Management counseling depending on what the State’s Attorney’s Office thinks is appropriate in your case. They may require that you receive other types of counseling such as mental health treatment for drug and alcohol treatment. But you must comply with all of their requirements. While you are going through this program, the conditions of your bond will apply.

If you do not successfully complete the program, or if you pick up a new case while you are in the program, you will be terminated from the program and you will go back to court to be sentenced for the Domestic Battery. Since you pled guilty to the offence, you will not be allowed to contest the criminal charges. The only issue before the court will be what your punishment will be.

If you successfully complete the program then the charges will be dismissed and you will be allowed to expunge the case from the public record. This means that you will be able to remove the public record regarding this case forever.

James Dimeas is an award winning Chicago criminal defense attorney and author with more than 24 years of experience aggressively representing his clients in Domestic Battery cases.  If you have a Domestic Battery case in Illinois, contact me in Chicago (312-229-5500), DuPage and Kane (630-504-2096) or Lake (847-696-6458) for a free and confidential consultation to discuss your legal options.

 Additional Resources:

Domestic Violence, Joseph A McHahon, Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office.

More Blog Posts:

Domestic Battery in Illinois, May 16, 2016.

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