The scene could have been straight out of a “Jerry Springer” show: Tracy, eyes puffy and red from crying, was determined to storm through the congested hallway, right past her boyfriend. But the tight quarters forced them to within a couple feet of each other.
She caught him smirking at her–and stopped cold.
“You think that (bleep) was slick, don’t you?”
“What you gonna do, hit me?” he replied, his eyes widening in mock terror.
“What, like you hit me with that bottle last night?” she screamed back.
Three law enforcement officers stepped in to separate the two. Counselors surrounded the woman.
The confrontation did not take place on the set of a trashy talk show. It happened in the halls of justice, literally–in a fourth floor corridor at the Cook County Domestic Violence Courthouse at 13th Street and Michigan Avenue.
Tracy had hoped to find solace there. Instead, her boyfriend got off because she failed to complete all the paperwork. And thanks to the cramped courthouse corridor, he got one more chance to torment her.
More Chicago women suffer from domestic violence than from cancer, car accidents or any other health hazard. Yet only 20 percent of women in the city who file charges show up for their hearings. Usually, their alleged perpetrators get off without a challenge.
Convincing victims to be courageous and self-confident enough to testify against their mates is the greatest challenge domestic violence prosecutors face.
Their job is made that much more difficult by the conditions of the courthouse at 13th and Michigan. Its cramped courtrooms and passages and inadequate physical layout create hostile and unsafe situations that impede the administration of justice.
It’s time the Cook County Board bolstered the critical work of the domestic violence division by providing it with new, functional, dignified facilities.
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Some 1,100 cases are heard weekly at 13th and Michigan. It is the county’s second busiest courthouse, after traffic court and is considered the busiest domestic violence courthouse in the nation.
By their very nature, these are volatile cases. Every one of them deals with violence. Children, friends and family of victims and defendants frequently are present, adding to the tension.
This incendiary climate is exacerbated by the inadequacies of the building itself.
On Monday mornings, after the revelry of the weekend leaves dozens of abused women in its wake, more than a hundred people may fill the lobby waiting to board one of two tiny elevators that move at a snail’s pace. It’s not uncommon for a case to be called on the fourth floor while the parties are stuck downstairs.
In the fourth-floor corridor there isn’t enough space to separate victims from the very men from whom they seek protection. Defendants have been known to sweet-talk their mates into dropping charges, even as they waited for their hearing to be called.
The accused suffer as well. The three second-floor lockup cells, built to hold 15 people apiece, sometimes are packed with 50 to 60 men each. Sheriff’s deputies escort defendants through the same back hallways used by judges and lawyers, creating security risks.
The seven-story structure was never meant to handle this crush. It was used for felony jury trials after ITT Corp. donated it to the county in 1975. Domestic violence courts moved there in the mid-1980s when there wasn’t nearly the caseload that now exists.
Today, Cook County is one of the most aggressive jurisdictions in the country at trying domestic violence offenders. State’s Atty. Richard Devine created a separate unit just over a year ago to prosecute domestic battery and violations of protection orders.
Last year, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that those charged with such offenses, which are misdemeanors, must post bond before a judge–as required for criminal offenses–rather than at a police station.
Those factors have helped push 13th and Michigan beyond its capacity. Despite the best efforts of Chief Judge Donald O’Connell to reconfigure the facility to meet the expanding needs, it still falls well short.
Very soon, the county will have to find a new building for traffic court, which is being evicted by the city from its home on North LaSalle Street, and for the two misdemeanor courts that will be displaced from 11th and State Streets once the Chicago Police Department moves into new headquarters.
Finding a new home for domestic violence court ought to be as high a priority. The deficiencies at 13th and Michigan too greatly aggravate an already difficult challenge: protecting the thousands of Chicago women who suffer from domestic abuse.
