Crime victim rights advocates seek constitutional amendment - chicagotribune.com
"Years after her 11-year-old daughter was sexually assaulted, Denise Rotheimer wants the right to sue the Lake County prosecutors who sent the offender to jail, saying they defamed her child by telling the judge that the girl "had issues."
In Cook County, Maria Ramirez believes prosecutors violated her rights by refusing to let her file a complaint after she was threatened by relatives of a juvenile charged with her son's 2006 murder.
Both women found that — after floundering through a complex criminal justice system that critics say is weighted toward ensuring the rights of the accused — their rights as crime victims were unenforceable.
Victims of violent crimes "are not the people you want to further victimize or betray," said Rotheimer, who along with her daughter, Jasmine Jimenez, now 21, has filed a federal lawsuit against the Lake County's state's attorney and the state of Illinois. She hopes it leads to a precedent that prosecutors can be held legally accountable.
"I am saying, let's have a right to be able to hold accountable a person who violates or denies you your rights to justice, prosecutor or not," Rotheimer said.
The Illinois Constitution already provides 10 rights for crime victims, including that they be treated with respect, given notice of court hearings and be allowed to attend trials and present victim-impact statements.
But if those rights are violated, there's no mechanism for a crime victim to appeal to a higher court, said Cindy Hora, who heads the Illinois attorney general's crime victim services division. And Illinois is the only state whose constitution specifically prohibits victims from seeking legal remedy through an appeal, Hora said."
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