Chicago City Wire

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx is handling the COVID-19 pandemic all wrong, according to Republican challenger Pat O’Brien, who doesn’t think a continued shutdown of the victim screening office at Chicago’s Domestic Violence Court is proper protocol.

“I would think about trying to retrofit the courtrooms rather than holding hearings on Zoom,” O’Brien told the Chicago City Wire. “It’s important for victims of domestic violence to actually see the judge and the prosecutor. Plexiglass can be installed in front of the bench. There’s personal protective equipment and you can take the temperature of everyone walking into the courtroom.”

 That’s because O’Brien believes the coronavirus is here to stay for at least another year.

Kim Foxx | File photo

"I don't think we can have the court system operating on this kind of halfway basis for a year and a half more,” he said.

 According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, there were 370,194 coronavirus cases and 9,481 fatalities statewide as of Oct. 24.

“The state's attorney Kim Foxx has furloughed half or more of the office,” O’Brien said. “She's not even having them come into work anymore and the state’s attorneys are critical workers in trying to enforce the law. You can't treat them as non-essential workers.”

Family advocates reportedly told O’Brien that no one in the state’s attorney’s office is answering the hotline established for domestic-abuse, neglect and violence victims. Instead, they are having to leave voicemail messages.

“These are often life-and-death situations,” O'Brien said at an Oct. 24 news conference where he was flanked by family members of domestic-violence victims. “They escalate and if you don’t stop the escalation in a quick fashion, the person could face more danger.” 

But the digital director for the Friends for Foxx campaign disagrees with O'Brien and provided a link as to the state's attorney's office coronavirus response.

"We believe that O’Brien is making false claims," Neal Stevens-Jackson told the Chicago City Wire. "He is mischaracterizing the DV issues that first occurred when the pandemic began and has a pattern of exploiting victims for his own political gain."

If elected to replace Foxx as the Cook County State’s Attorney, O’Brien said staff would come back to work immediately unless they have an underlying condition.

“Assistant state's attorneys would be tested on a somewhat regular basis for COVID so that you can send people home who have contracted the virus,” he said. “I would institute contact tracing. The police do not close up shop when one of their offices is exposed to COVID and neither should the state’s attorney's office. The police department takes steps to mitigate the risk of transmission.”

O’Brien said he also plans to implement a witness and children's safety program that will provide services such as relocation, housing, school placement, job training and counseling for victims and witnesses in gang-related violent-crime cases.

“The Denver District Attorney's office has had a program like this for almost a decade now,” he said. “It had success and the money comes from local sources. It’s also suitable for a federal grant program.”