Closing courthouse on Belmont could deal blow to justice in Lake View

I strongly encourage Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and Chief Judge Timothy Evans to employ all measures within their authority to keep the courtrooms at 2452 W. Belmont open. The East Lake View community was highly alarmed when media reports last week indicated that closure of these courtrooms was likely to become part of a wider budget resolution.

In the past five years our community — which includes Wrigley Field as well as many iconic homes and businesses — has seen violent crime escalate, while the number of local police officers has diminished. Armed robberies, sexual assaults, carjackings and other serious crimes that once were rare now appear in local crime reports with startling frequency. The perpetrators of these acts are regularly prosecuted in the courtrooms at 2452 W. Belmont with the necessary presence of complaining witnesses and court advocates.

Closure of these courtrooms will have a devastating, exacerbating effect on our community’s already declining safety. Cases would likely be assigned to the Grand & Central courthouse, to the Leighton Courthouse, or to the 2nd Municipal District Courthouse in Skokie. Complaining witnesses, who are by definition vital to a successful prosecution, are far less likely to travel such significant distances to testify. Their absence will require the dismissal of many prosecutions, releasing perpetrators back into our community unscathed. Similarly, court advocates will be unlikely to travel to courthouses many miles from our community and will be unable to emphasize the urgency of justice to the court.

The decision before Preckwinkle and Evans is not merely a fiscal one. It is one that directly affects the security of our community and the administration of justice against those who would threaten it. I urge them to work together, with our community, and with the greater Lake View area, to determine an alternative solution that would allow these courtrooms to remain in operation.

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