Kevin Lyons announced recently that he’s going to run for reelection as Peoria County State’s Attorney. I found this interesting:
Among the items he said he wanted to focus on in the coming years were efforts to protect police officers from vicious dogs who might be housed by criminals, the possible hiring of a “cold-case” prosecutor to try to solve unsolved cases [emphasis mine] and a continued effort to protect the elderly.
One of those goals sounds familiar…. Oh, here it is, from November 3, 2004 — the last time Lyons was reelected:
Lyons, 48, of Peoria has served as Peoria County’s top prosecutor for nearly 16 years. Among his goals for his next term are to create a cold case unit for unsolved crimes [emphasis mine] and to bring criminal cases to conclusion faster.
He has a good reason why he hasn’t reached his 2004 goal yet. He’s holding out for Det. Lilly Rush (pictured above, with Lyons) to join his team. She always solves her cases, and that kind of slam-dunk record is just what Lyons is looking for.
A cold case file of Brian Aexander would be one to start with. Just ask Mr. Lyons about that case.That murder investagation was screwed up from the start. A new state’s atttorny might be what is needed. As far as I know nothing has been done on this case. Sad.
I want to read several quotes from the folks back in Vegas as to what sort of job LaHood did out west. I want to hear about what sort of bulldog against crime he was out there, and how he flattened out the drug bosses and the crimelords. I’ve been waiting a loooooooong time so far for the Journal Star to run with that set-up… how much longer do I need to wait?
Not usually one to stick up for Mr. Lyons, in this case I feel that I must. It is terribly difficult to hire another Assistant State’s Attorney with no funding from the County taxpayers. Maybe the better story would be for the PJStar to look at Kevin Lyons’ funding/budget requests since 2004 and see if he has even asked for additional funding.
It’s just like when everyone complains about wanting to send every petty criminal to the DOC and lock them away forever but then don’t want their tax money to pay for housing them or their taxes raised for any type of rehabilitative program. If Daren LaHood thinks he can somehow change all this, good luck to him!
I had dealings with Kevin Lyon’s office and I was not impressed. I was to testify as a witness in a case about a melee that happened across the street from my house. When the date came up and I called his office like my notice said I was told that they couldn’t find the defendant so I didn’t have to testify. I happened to know exactly where the defendant was since he was a neighbor who had recently moved. I told them the defendant was a foster child and who his foster mother was. I then got on my computer and used the white pages on MSN and got the address of where they live. I tried to give them all this information and I was told that they didn’t want it because the police enjoy finding people. No wonder we are in the state of affairs we are in now!
I just saw a list of 44 people wanting to be associate judge. I’m not sure there has been this much interest in that sort of position ever. It always seems like you Federal magistrate and retired circuit judge John Gorman’s daughter Katherine, Stu Umholtz wife Val, Judge Vespa’s brother John and Jeremy Heiple, son of the retired supreme court justice are some of the connected applicants. There are some qualified candidates and people who would serve well but the one that stands out as proven able to handle that sort of position would seem to be Tom Higgins who serves as the City of Peoria hearing officer. He’s handled about every sort of issue in housing and the other types of ordinance and crime related hearings the city has moved from the courthouse. Somebody like that would be a nice change as opposed to somebody related to or politically connected somehow.