In first 100 days, Cook Co. SA O'Neill Burke focusing on guns, domestic violence cases

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The Cook County state's attorney said her office, the second-largest prosecutor's office in the U.S., is now making domestic violence cases a priority after a number of recent murders tied to domestic cases.

Eileen O'Neill Burke also said she's very concerned about the county's electronic monitoring system, and who's out on the streets.

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ABC7 Chicago political reporter Craig Wall talked with the county's top prosecutor one-on-one Thursday about her first 100 days in office.

O'Neill Burke took office the first week of December, promising change from the way the office had been run under her predecessor. And while guns and gun violence remain the top priority, a rash of domestic-violence-related killings are making that another major priority.

In her only television interview to mark her first 100 days in office, O'Neill Burke talked about new priorities.

"I think domestic violence became a priority very, very quickly. Fifteen women have been killed who had pending domestic violence cases over the last several months. That's a house on fire," O'Neill Burke said.

O'Neill Burke is now restructuring her office, adding supervisors to that unit and doing more training.

But, illegal guns and the violence connected to them still remain the top priority. Someone from her office is embedded at the Chicago Gun Crimes Center.

"So, what they can do there is they take a shell casing, and they put it in a machine. And they can track where else that gun has been used," O'Neill Burke said.

Electronic monitoring is also a big concern for the state's attorney, as the responsibility shifts at the end of the month from the sheriff's office to the chief judge's office.

The program includes a 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew for those wearing ankle monitors. Many have been accused of violent crimes.

"Seventeen people are charged with murder on a curfew program. Those numbers should strike fear in everyone's heart," O'Neill Burke said. "I think somebody charged with murder needs to be detained."

O'Neill Burke promised when elected that she would focus her efforts on making sure that defendants accused of gun and violent sex crimes stay locked up, pending trial.

"We are asking for detention and jail time each and every time an assault weapon is used or found on someone, each and every time someone has a switch or a ghost gun or an extended magazine," she said.

And she's keeping track of what judges do during detention hearings.

"So, we are tracking our own data for exactly how many times we're asking for detention, what the detention rate is and how that is is broken down by each and every branch court," O'Neill Burke said.

The state's attorney also reversed the policy of her predecessor, who raised the threshold for felony retail theft from $300 to $1,000, which was blamed for a dramatic increase in smash-and-grabs.

"The last statistic I saw was that we had an increase of 154% of retail theft prosecutions. That doesn't mean we've had an increase of retail thefts. It means we went from zero prosecutions to a normal level of prosecutions," O'Neill Burke said.

As for a bill pending in Springfield that would legalize prostitution, O'Neill Burke has concerns.

"You know, I have seen the ravages of prostitution, both as a prosecutor and as a defense attorney, and I'm hesitant that that would be a good thing," O'Neill Burke said.

O'Neill Burke also said she is closely monitoring what's happening in Washington, and hopes that her office, which receives millions of dollars in federal funding, will be able to preserve those dollars.

She is also concerned about a possible decrease in federal corruption cases in the next couple of years. So, she's reviving her own anti-corruption unit.

"We need to be able to fill that void. We need to be able to have prosecutions taking place, even if the feds decline prosecution on that," O'Neill Burke said.