Defense Attorney Announces Run For Lake County State's Attorney

WAUKEGAN, IL — A local criminal defense attorney announced his bid to become the county's top prosecutor Monday in Waukegan, calling for increased accountability and a renewed focus on violent crime in the Lake County State's Attorney's Office.

Eric Rinehart, a Highwood Democrat, is the first candidate to announce plans to compete in the March 2020 primaries for state's attorney. The winner of the Democratic primary is expected to face off against two-term incumbent State's Attorney Mike Nerheim.

Laying out an agenda for "urgent reform," the first-time candidate said he would focus on transparency, reducing violent crime, confronting wrongful prosecutions, rehabilitation over incarceration and strengthening the connection between law enforcement and communities.

"How we protect our families and our communities through the criminal justice system is the most important issue decided on the county level," Rinehart told supporters. "But for decades, decisions in that building have been made by the same group of people — people who are not fighting for you."

Rinehart, 42, was endorsed and introduced by state Rep. Sam Yingling, a Grayslake Democrat, before addressing a group of supporters at Lincoln Plaza across from the Lake County Courthouse. He said residents deserve a state's attorney who can serve the people better and can "no longer afford" one who "listens to the few while failing to protect the many," according to a transcript of his announcement.

"Today, violent criminals go un-prosecuted while violent crimes sit unsolved — because we waste too much time and too much money pursuing minor convictions in victimless cases," Rinehart said. Residents deserve to know what crimes are taking place and whether law enforcement and prosecutors are solving them, and taxpayers deserve not to have their money wasted, he added.

"The problem we face now is that this office has no long-term plan to reduce violent crime or to protect the public," Rinehart said. "Instead, the office unnecessarily expends thousands of hours and thousands of dollars on low-level crime while neglecting the effective prosecution of violent crimes. When prosecutors spend too much time on victimless crimes, they are not protecting us."

Rinehart received his law degree from the University of Chicago in 2001 and spent three years as an associate with a business litigation firm before working as an assistant public defender in Lake County from 2003 to 2008. He currently practices in a criminal defense firm with Kevin Malia, a fellow former Lake County public defender.

"Right here in our county," Rinehart said, "we made national news for the worst possible reason. In this very building, this state's attorney's office wrongfully prosecuted innocent people. We must confront this ugly fact, and reconcile with our history of wrongful prosecutions. There has never been a full account of how our system wrongfully prosecuted so many individuals in the past. I will change the culture that led to these wrongful convictions — and report back to all the people on how and why this culture persisted for so long."

If elected, Rinehart said he would also increase training for police on constitutional principles and preserving evidence, and he would intervene when constitutional rights are violated. He said he would expand programs that seek to rehabilitate those suffering from drug addiction and "radically reform" the office's approach to juvenile justice.

Nerheim, 45, and the county coroner, Bannockburn dentist Howard Cooper, are the lone Republicans in countywide office following last November's sweep by Democratic candidates, who also took control of the Lake County Board for the first time.