A 33-year-old police officer has sex with a 16-year-old girl. Her family, believing the girl was coerced into the act, presses criminal charges against him. The officer pleads guilty, quits his job and is sentenced to probation. The sort of serious stuff you’d expect to know about if it happened in your community, right?
Well, amazingly, prosecutors in DuPage County apparently didn’t think so. With the consent of a judge, they purposely kept the details of just such a case hidden from the public for weeks.
In fact, DuPage County State’s Atty. Joe Birkett and Circuit Court Judge John T. Elsner might never have divulged their little secret if Tribune columnist Eric Zorn hadn’t exposed them on Tuesday.
That same day, Elsner finally opened the case file against Addison police officer Jeffrey E. McIntyre of Hanover Park, which he had previously ordered sealed at Birkett’s request. Birkett then admitted the information should have been made public in August, when the officer first appeared in court, in accordance with state law.
But Birkett’s admission didn’t go far enough. The case should have been fully disclosed to the public from the moment McIntyre was charged.
In fact, it’s hard to think of a good reason that information in a criminal case should ever be kept secret. Public disclosure is just one more necessary check to make sure the power of law enforcement is applied fairly.
In this case, Birkett said he asked Elsner to seal the case file to protect the identity of the juvenile victim and her family. That’s a weak excuse. The names of juvenile crime victims already are protected under state law. It is absurd to contend that, in order to protect the young victim’s identity, the name of her convicted attacker must be concealed.
This whole affair is just one more instance of questionable judgment on the part of Birkett’s office and, whether fairly or not, it fuels questions about whether his relationship with law enforcement is too cozy.
In the future, DuPage’s legal establishment would do well to remember this truth: The authority of law enforcement to act against the citizenry is a tremendous privilege. It ought to be exercised with integrity and in full view of the public.
