Election Results: Incumbent Michael Nerheim Wins Lake Co. State's Attorney Race

Lake County voters on Tuesday chose incumbent Michael Nerheim to continue in his post as Lake County State's Attorney.

Nerheim, a Republican, won with 94,925 votes over democratic challenger Matt Stanton, who claimed 74,558 votes, according to unofficial results posted on the Lake County Clerk’s Office website late Tuesday night.

The handling of past wrongful convictions was a point of contention between Nerheim and Stanton as the campaigned for the state’s attorney post.

Since 2010, six high-profile cases have been overturned in Lake County including murder cases involving Jason Strong, Jerry Hobbs, Juan Rivera and James Edwards and rape cases against Bennie Starks and Angel Gonzalez, the Daily Herald reports. Meanwhile, an appeal is under way on the highly-publicized daycare death case where Melissa Calusinksi alleges she was coerced into a confession for her role in the death of a 16-month-old Deerfield boy.

Neirheim took office in 2012 and Stanton claimed Neirheim should have fired staffers for their role in several wrongful-conviction cases, which are linked to a prior administration, according to the Daily Herald.

"Leadership isn't about firing people," Nerheim said during a joint Daily Herald candidate endorsement interview in recent week. "If I knew any one of them (assistant state's attorneys) had done anything illegal or improper with regard to any of those cases, they'd be gone."

Stanton, a constitutional law professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology's Kent College of Law, thought he would have a leg up in the election since he has no ties to the state’s attorney’s office, unlike Nerheim, who started his careers in 1999 as an assistant state's attorney, according to the Lake County-New Sun.

"He promised during the last election ... that he would re-interview all seven assistant attorneys for their jobs and promised to rid that office of anybody that was more interested in gaining convictions and maintaining convictions than seeking justice," Stanton said. "He replaced no one."

But Neirheim said during a debate put on by the League of Women Voters in recent weeks that he created a case-review panel, consisting of defense attorney, civil rights lawyers, law professors and judges, who have no ties to Lake County, to take a look at cases where there may be evidence of innocence, the Lake County News-Sun reports. The Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office also has an in-house conviction integrity unit.

"What we have to do first is make sure that we're charging people that should be charged based on facts and law," Nerheim said. "That's it, so we've significantly beefed up our felony-review division, which is the part of the office that screens cases coming in to make sure we're not charging cases in the first place unless we have evidence beyond a reasonable doubt."

In a bio posted on Nerheim's candidate website, he touts his past experience as making him the right choice for voters. Here more from Nerheim’s bio:

As State’s Attorney, Mike oversees an office of 144 attorneys, investigators, victim coordinators, paralegals, and support staff, plus two certified comfort dogs and a corps of volunteers.

Upon assuming office in December 2012 Mike immediately began delivering on his campaign promises to make the office more efficient, effective, and transparent. He is focused on preventing wrongful convictions, working with law enforcement to address the huge surge in gangs and gang violence in our community, and restoring the public’s trust in the office. Mike developed a countywide opioid prevention strategy and co-founded the Lake County Opioid Initiative.

Mike began his legal career in 1999 as an Assistant State’s Attorney. He has extensive experience working in all criminal divisions of the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office, handling every type of case including traffic, misdemeanor, domestic violence, criminal sexual assault, drug trafficking, gang-related crimes, crimes against children and the elderly, official misconduct, and murder.

Mike is an experienced prosecutor and former defense attorney with more than 16 years of experience and perspective on both sides of the law. His in-depth experience includes not only criminal law, but also areas of complex civil litigation and municipal law. As a private practitioner, Mike was appointed by the courts to investigate post-conviction issues and has represented indigent defendants.

As a former Assistant State’s Attorney and defense attorney, and now as State’s Attorney, he is respected by the defense bar, victim advocates, and federal, state and local law enforcement.

More via the Daily Herald and the Lake County News-Sun