DuPage County judges have selected Gary Dodge, the court administrator for Springfield, to replace Robert Fiscella, the DuPage County trial court administrator for more than a dozen years.
Dodge, 48, has been the trial court administrator for the 7th Judicial Circuit for seven years.
A court administrator assists the county judges in overseeing the administration and budget of several county agencies, including the Probation Department, public defender’s office, youth home and Jury Commission, as well as working with the County Board.
“I had heard about the opening in DuPage, and I already knew the county’s reputation for being a quality legal system and for being innovative in trying to serve the needs of the public,” Dodge said.
Dodge, a Texas native who isn’t a lawyer, began his legal career as a legal administrator for the Army’s judge advocate general, which manages the Army’s court system.
After retiring from the Army in 1994, he went to work for the 7th Circuit District. The district covers six central Illinois counties with a population of about 316,000 and has 22 judges.
The 18th Circuit District has only DuPage County, but with a population nearing 1million and 40 judges, it is the state’s second-largest court system.
“We know Gary will bring the same dedication and excellence to our circuit, and we consider ourselves fortunate to bring him on board,” said DuPage County Chief Judge Robert Kilander.
Dodge is to begin his duties March 11 and spend a month with Fiscella before he retires.
Another rejection: Fedell Caffey, the Schaumburg man on Death Row for the 1995 murder of an Addison mother and two of her children, is running low on options to avoid being put to death for the crimes.
This week the Illinois Supreme Court rejected his request for a rehearing on his previous appeal seeking to overturn his conviction.
The Supreme Court voted 5-2 last October against Caffey’s appeal, in which he claims Addison police and DuPage prosecutors illegally convicted him of the crime. The two justices who voted for Caffey’s appeal said it was based on their opposition to the death sentence in Illinois.
Gov. George Ryan’s moratorium on the death penalty remains in effect, and Caffey’s hope to avoid the ultimate penalty appears to rest on the continuation of that moratorium or the eventual abolition of the death penalty.
VINE spreads: DuPage County’s VINE (Victim Information and Notification Everyday) system has been expanded to include all of Illinois.
The VINE system, created in Kentucky to alert victims of the imminent release of a criminal defendant, began operations in DuPage County in 1997.
DuPage County Sheriff John Zaruba says the county system has been successfully interfaced with the state system, operated by Illinois Atty. Gen. Jim Ryan, to allow access to the custody status of inmates in the Illinois Department of Corrections, as well as other county jails in Illinois.
The system is activated when an inmate is released from a jail or prison and the victim has previously registered their interest. The defendant’s release is placed into a computer program, which calls the interested victim on a repeated basis to notify them of the release.
Victims may call the toll-free hotline, 866-566-8439, any time to register for notification. The system is free and confidential.
“Many inmates are released each day from jails across the state. Manually trying to notify victims is a near-impossible task,” Zaruba said. “By merging with the state system, we will be able to enable more crime victims to protect themselves.”
