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Judges, attorneys and other court officials are not the only people who must successfully navigate the requirements of the new Pretrial Fairness Act. The people accused of crimes also have responsibilities under the act. In September 2023, the PFA took effect and, for the most part, eliminated monetary bail in Illinois.
Instead, the law requires contested court hearings designed to determine if someone should be detained before trial and later to evaluate that detention. The law has also given authorities conditions they can impose on defendants to encourage their good behavior when they are freed on pretrial release. The most basic of these include showing up for court and not breaking laws, but they can also be more restrictive.
Depending on circumstances, a defendant could be placed on electronic monitoring or home arrest. Rock Island County is still compiling data on the law’s impact, but the majority of defendants appear to be complying with the conditions imposed upon them, many county court officials said. “The community of people that we deal with in the criminal justice system is like any other community — made up of individuals, and they are all unique,” Judge Frank Fuhr, one of the judges who oversees felony court, said.
“So each defendant reacts differently to the conditions, but overall, as in most populations, the majority comply.” The new law has also given the courts the power to penalize defendants who fail to meet those conditions, including by failing to appear for court or by being accused of new crimes. These penalties can include more restrictive conditions or jail time.
A review of a handful of Rock Island County felony cases show people accused of crimes interacting with the new requirements in a variety of ways. Ashley Koehler’s case exemplifies some of the mechanisms in place in the event a defendant is accused of failing to appear for court. On July 31, Koehler, 37, Cedar Rapids, appeared before Judge Clayton R.
Lee for a hearing. Koehler's charges — possession of a stolen motor vehicle and possession of a controlled substance — did not fall into a detainable category, and she had been on pretrial release since September 2023. Prosecutors, though, wanted to modify her conditions of pretrial release, arguing Koehler had not been showing up for court in her criminal case.
Depending on Lee’s decision, she faced up to 30 days in the Rock Island County Jail. Tiffany Davison, the assistant public defender representing Koehler, contended her client’s missing court was not willful and recommended the court reject the state’s petition for sanctions or incarcerate Koehler for a shorter period. Her arguments included that living in Cedar Rapids had created challenges for Koehler getting to court.
Koehler, though, had recently returned to Rock Island, putting her in a better position to appear for hearings, Davison said. After hearing the arguments, Lee ordered Koehler held until her next court date on Aug. 8, after which she would again be released.
The criminal case against Koehler began on Aug. 16, 2023. After her arrest, she remained in custody on a $50,000 bail.
To be released under the cash system, she needed a $5,000 bond. Koehler was one of the first people Rock Island County authorities released when they began applying the new law on Sept. 18, 2023.
Once the new law became active, the charges against Koehler fell into the non-detainable category, court records state. To remain free, she had to comply with conditions, including showing up for court hearings, records state. In the following months, she failed to appear for court five times, prosecutors contend.
The first four allegations led to her first sanctions hearing in May and a judge jailing her for two days — until her next hearing. The fifth time she failed to appear led to the July 31 hearing. Records state that Koehler entered a plea agreement with prosecutors at her Aug.
8 hearing. The agreement requires her to serve 30 months of probation. There was also a jail sentence, but if she abides by the plea deal, she will avoid that incarceration.
To successfully serve her sentence, Koehler must again meet conditions, including not breaking any laws and refraining from using alcohol or drugs. Tyrell Cooper’s cases are an example of someone on pretrial release being accused of a new crime. When Cooper, 27, of Rock Island, allegedly shot someone in March 2024 in Rock Island, he had been on pretrial release for about four days on a weapons case, according to court records.
The victim was shot in the foot, records state. Cooper subsequently faced several charges, including aggravated battery. The weapons case involved charges of unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon and possession of a stolen weapon, records state.
Authorities allege he had a stolen handgun. The charges in the weapon case were detainable but court records show that prosecutors had not filed a petition to detain him. The records did not specify why the state chose not to at that time.
Conditions for Cooper remaining free included not having a firearm, showing up for court and not breaking any laws. After they charged him with aggravated battery, prosecutors petitioned to detain him and won, records state. He remained in custody until July.
Authorities released him on July 10 after he successfully appealed on the grounds that his detention hearing occurred outside the 48-hour deadline required in his case, records state. The court imposed a number of conditions upon Cooper, including no contact with the person authorities accuse him of shooting, GPS monitoring and home detention. Since his release, no new criminal cases have been filed against him in Rock Island or Scott counties, court records show.
Only one court appearance for both cases has happened since his release, and Cooper appeared for it. Both cases remained pending as of Sept. 8, records state.
Napoleon Jackson’s case shows the decisions made both at a detention hearing and at a recent re-evaluation of the detention status in a murder case. At issue in both hearings is whether he could be released on conditions or should remain in custody. On Aug.
29, Judge Frank Fuhr had to decide whether Jackson’s detention status should change. Authorities allege Jackson, now 18, of Rock Island, killed Danny Taylor on April 14, 2023, in Taylor’s Milan home. Jackson faces multiple charges, including first-degree murder.
In a detention petition filed just before the Pretrial Fairness Act became active, prosecutors argued Jackson should be detained because he posed a threat to the community and was a flight risk. His case was opened before Sept. 18, 2023, but attorneys were able to apply the Pretrial Fairness Act to older cases on an individual basis.
Jackson’s was among the first detention hearings held in Rock Island County in 2023 and the court ruled in the prosecutors’ favor, records state. He appealed but the appellate court upheld the decision to detain him. Before the new law, Jackson was held on a $1 million bail.
To be released, he would have had to post the entire amount. He has remained in custody since his arrest, first at Mary Davis Detention Home as a juvenile, and now in the Rock Island County Jail as an adult. During the Aug.
29 hearing, Assistant Public Defender Tiffany Davison argued for her client’s pretrial release. Those arguments included that Jackson had been in custody a significant amount of time. He had family in the area that could help him comply with release conditions imposed by the court, Davison said.
She argued he had done well on GPS monitoring in the past and asked that he be released with monitoring as a condition. Assistant State’s Attorney Steven Cichon argued against Jackson’s release, resting on arguments prosecutors had already made as to why he should be detained. The Aug.
29 hearing on Jackson’s detention happened during the morning felony call, just after his regular pretrial conference. During pretrial conferences, attorneys update the court on the progress of a case toward resolution. The attorneys stood before Fuhr while Jackson waited at the defense counsel’s table nearby.
Once he’d heard the arguments Fuhr ruled that Jackson should remain in custody. The entire exchange took only a few minutes and when it was done, staff led Jackson back out of the court room to the jail. A handful of felony cases filed just after the PFA’s launch provide further examples of different interactions between the people charged and the law’s requirements as of the middle of August.
Of the 17 cases reviewed, the records for one were unclear as to whether the defendant had any failures to appear, but the defendant had no new criminal cases listed against them in either Rock Island or Scott counties. Six others showed no failures to appear or new criminal cases filed against the defendants. All six either were either free on a notice to appear or were initially detained then later released on notice.
A seventh defendant was detained and the case record showed no new cases filed against the defendant. The records for nine other cases had at least one failure to appear or at least one new criminal case filed against them in either Rock Island County or Scott County. Some of the nine had both.
Of the six new criminal cases filed against defendants in this group, three were felonies and three were misdemeanors and almost all them were filed in Scott County. Of these: Though these cases show some of the ways people with pending cases have reacted with the Pretrial Fairness Act active, there have been hundreds of felony cases filed since the law took effect. The county was still gathering data on the law’s performance at the time of publication, so a more detailed, overall look was not yet available.
Steamboat Development Corp. will demolish the former J. I.
Case building near the I-74 bridge in Bettendorf beginning Monday. Photo published Friday, Sept. 14, 1990.
(Photo by Brent Hanson/Quad-City Times) Case 1956. (Contributed photo) J.I.
Case Co., Bettendorf. Photo taken Thursday, Dec.
13, 1956. (Photo by Phil Hutchison/The Daily Times) Handwritten on back: Series 1450 Big Dozer unchecked engine station. Photo taken Wednesday, Feb.
27, 1980. (Photo by Michael Chritton/Quad-City Times) This 1450 Series leader, the largest crawler made by Case, is ready for shipment to a customer after rolling off an assembly line in Bettendorf. Photo taken Wednesday, Feb.
27, 1980. Published Sunday, march 9, 1980. (Photo by Michael Chritton/Quad-City Times) Kevin Colby installs hydraulic lifts on a crawler at the J.
I. Case Bettendorf Plant. Case spent more than $6 million in capital improvements at its Bettendorf facility last year.
Photo taken Wednesday, Feb. 27, 1980. Published, Sunday, March 9, 1980.
(Photo by Michael Chritton/Quad-City Times) Haines McIntyre builds a track channel at the J.I. Case Bettendorf plant, one of 11 Case factories in the U.
S. Published Sunday, March 9, 1980. (Photo by Michael Chritton/Quad-City Times) Engines roll down the assembly line, above, in J.
I. Case's Rock Island plant. Published Sunday, March 14, 1982.
(Photo by Larry Fisher/Quad-City Times) The strandgrinding section of the plant. Published Sunday, March 14, 1982. (Photo by Larry Fisher/Quad-City Times.
) Below is the "clean room," where hydraulic cylinders are assembled in a controlled environment. Published Sunday, March 14, 1982. (Photo by Larry Fisher/Quad-City Times) J.
I. Case Co. -- Last 2055 Cotton Picker Produced -- Friday, Oct.
28, 1994. J.I.
Case Co. -- Last 1600 Series Combine Produced, East Moline Plant -- Monday, Nov. 7, 1994.
Case Plant, Bettendorf. (Quad-City Times photo) Case Plant, Bettendorf. (Quad-City Times photo) J.
I. Case Co. Rudy Horsch, left, chief product engineer at the J.
I. Case plant, Bettendorf, and E. J.
Goetsch, plant manager, examine the 1150B crawler tractor, a new product being manufactured at the Bettendorf plant. (Photo by Don Jones/Quad-City Times) J.I.
Case Co., Bettendorf. (Quad-City Times photo) Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email.
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