People released before trial in Illinois already have a basic rule to follow: Don’t commit new crimes while your case is pending. Now, an Illinois appeals court has clarified that the rule doesn’t stop at the state line.
In a ruling issued this month, the Fourth District Appellate Court said prosecutors can seek to revoke a defendant’s pretrial release if the person is charged with a felony or serious misdemeanor in another state while awaiting trial in Illinois.
The decision answers a legal question that came up under Illinois’ Pretrial Fairness Act after a Rock Island County judge ruled that new charges filed against a defendant in Iowa could not be the basis for revoking pretrial release in Illinois. The appellate court disagreed.
The case involved Michael Andrew Ford, who was awaiting trial in Illinois on felony weapons charges when prosecutors said he was arrested in Iowa on new charges that included being a felon in possession of a weapon, trafficking stolen firearms, and unauthorized use of credit cards.
The appeals court said Illinois law allows judges to revoke pretrial release when someone is charged with a new felony or Class A misdemeanor while awaiting trial. Nothing in the law says those new charges must come from Illinois, the justices wrote.
The judges noted that people released before trial in Illinois are already required to obey “any criminal statute of any jurisdiction” as a condition of their release. In other words, someone on pretrial release is already prohibited from committing crimes anywhere, not just in Illinois.
The court also rejected the idea that someone could avoid the consequences simply by crossing a state border before committing another crime. Such a reading, the justices said, would be inconsistent with the purpose of Illinois’ pretrial release law, which is intended to protect public safety while allowing eligible defendants to remain free before trial.
The ruling does not mean a person automatically loses pretrial release whenever they are charged with a crime in another state.
Instead, prosecutors must still convince a judge that no set of release conditions would reasonably ensure the defendant appears in court and prevents additional serious criminal charges.
