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August 29, 2019
Dear Community Leaders,
Hello, and welcome to another edition of “For the People.”
As you will see, some changes have been made to this newsletter. We have refocused the content to hopefully make it more useful for the residents of Lake County. In addition, we have added a column entitled “LCCAC Corner,” which features information about the Lake County Children’s Advocacy Center and how you can get involved. We also have added the column, “A Dog’s Life,” which will feature articles penned by our award-winning service dogs Mitch, Hitch and Browser. I’m sure you’ll find both columns informative and fun. Our newsletter stories this month include our lawsuit against Juul Labs for deceptive marketing practices against teens, and what the public should know about Firearm Restraining Orders. I believe these stories below are extremely informative.
I was honored this month to welcome Scott Jaimes, 15, of Waukegan High School; Andrea Perez, 12, of Northbrook Junior High; and Camile Lopez, 10, of Andrew Cooke Magnet Elementary School in Waukegan. They were invited to serve as “Lake County State’s Attorney for a day.” During their day of service, Scott, Andrea and Camile toured the Lake County Coroner’s Office, met with Lake County Circuit Court Judge Mark Levitt, presided over attorneys in the courtroom, then helped me with many of the important issues we have going on in the state’s attorney’s office. They did a great job!
Scott Jaimes, 15, of Waukegan High School; Andrea Perez, 12, of Northbrook Junior High; and Camile Lopez, 10, of Andrew Cooke Magnet Elementary School in Waukegan were invited by Lake County State's Attorney Michael G. Nerheim to serve as “Lake County State’s Attorney for a day.”
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A new group of members will be joining our ranks with the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Young Advisory Board. The board meets twice monthly and consists of members that are aged 13 to 17. The Young Ambassador’s Board was established by my office to give students who are interested in empowering their peers a pathway to perform community service for the betterment of all communities. These young ambassadors work together to raise awareness and improve the well being and education to the youth of Lake County. They also benefit us by providing their insight on many issues we face as a society. We look forward to this program every year, and I can’t wait to see the accomplishments by these great students.
Finally, I would like to announce that the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office team took home the championship in the adult division of the Y-noT Project’s annual Wiffle Ball contest. This is great because the state’s attorney’s office hadn’t won a single game prior to winning three games against some extremely tough competition on Sunday, Aug. 11. The Y-noT Project was formed by the family of Tony Borcia who was killed during a water-skiing accident involving an intoxicated boater. The organization seeks to end intoxicated boating tragedies and encourages safe, responsible boating. Like it is every year, the Wiffle Ball tournament is a great event, and hats off to the Y-Not Project for another successful tournament.
Members of the Lake County State's Attorney's Office Wiffle Ball team, the "Base Chargers," with their championship sweatshirts after the Y-noT Project's Wiffle Ball tournament. |
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We continue to face many challenges, but as a community, we face them together. I continue to stand in awe of the dedicated men and women of the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office. As always, I encourage us to continue to work together to ensure that Lake County is a happy, healthy, and safe community.
Yours,
Spotlight Story:
Lake County State's Attorney Michael Nerheim files civil lawsuit against Juul Labs in Lake County Circuit Court
Teen vaping has become a nationwide health epidemic that has threatened our teens. Studies have proven that Juul’s nicotine delivery system and the nicotine contained in a single Juul pod is more potent than the nicotine found in traditional cigarettes. In addition, nicotine becomes even more addictive when used by adolescents. Studies have also shown nicotine affects brain development, attention, cognition, and raises the risk of teens becoming addicted to other dangerous drugs.
Because of these reasons, the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office and their legal partners have filed a lawsuit in the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit Court of Lake County against e-cigarette provider Juul Labs for intentionally pushing teens to become hooked on nicotine-aided e-cigarettes through deceptive social media marketing campaigns.
“Just like cigarette companies did in the past, Juul preyed on teens by using advertisements that glamorized their product in order to get kids hooked on nicotine,” State’s Attorney Michael Nerheim said at a news conference Aug. 13. “It will take years of education and money to right the wrongs and cover the damages caused by Juul’s marketing campaigns. To that end, the company should be held accountable for the massive expected cost to undo the damage they created.”
Like the ads promoted by big tobacco in the past, the goal of Juul’s predatory marketing campaign was to recruit new users at a young age by getting them hooked on the nicotine in e-cigarettes, according to the Lake County complaint. To accomplish this, Juul – the owner of more than 75 percent of the e-cigarette marketplace - launched a massive online advertising campaign that specifically targeted teenagers on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. On social media, Juul pushed teens to take pictures of themselves using the product, then asked teens to post those pictures on social media using the Juul hashtag.
 Through that advertising campaign, Juul consistently manipulated adolescents to use its product. Those ads were designed to convey powerful messages like popularity, peer acceptance and a positive self-image from using Juul, and the ads consistently used attractive young models smoking Juul’s e-cigarette while partying in provocative settings. By doing this, Juul knowingly lured kids into smoking by targeting them with their sleek product and promises of popularity, according to the complaint.
Juul’s predatory strategies of targeting teens became so obvious that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration opened its own investigation into Juul’s youth advertising campaign. In response, Juul announced they would “shut down” its social media accounts and made promises to stop focusing their marketing toward teens. They also changed their marketing strategy by trying to pass themselves off as a “stop smoking cure,” then declared they would stop selling flavored nicotine pods. But Juul’s promises proved empty, as ads targeting youth still exist on the internet and flavored pods continue to be sold.
Juul’s deceptive practices have already led to widespread adolescent addiction to Juul’s dangerous product. Those addictions can only be undone through expensive anti-addiction and cessation treatment, and anti-e-cigarette education for the hundreds of thousands of teens they hooked on their product. The cost to undermine their expensive marketing campaigns will ultimately result in public health departments putting out their own expensive marketing campaigns, paid for by taxpayers in Lake County, Illinois, and the United States of America.
Nerheim is joined on the lawsuit by the Chicago law firms of Romanucci and Blandin, LLC; Hart McLaughlin and Eldridge, LLC; and Edelson, PC. The lawsuit is the first of its kind filed in the United States. Copies of the complaint are available on the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office website at lcsao.org.
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A Dog's Life
Featuring Mitch, Hitch and Browser
I have my own column!!
Hello!! My name is Mitch and I’m the facility dog for the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office. It’s awesome that I finally get an opportunity to speak with all of you!
For those that don’t know me, I’m Mitch, a yellow Labrador retriever, and I primarily work out at the Lake County Children’s Advocacy Center. My main role is to provide comfort and compassion to child victims who visit us at the advocacy center. That’s right, I get paid to be pet by children!! Is this an awesome job or what?!?!
My buddy Hitch is a black Labrador retriever, who also serves as a facility dog. However, Hitch is mostly assigned to the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit’s Therapeutic Intensive Monitoring Program (TIM court) to provide comfort to adults in court. Those courts include specialty courts like mental health court, drug court and veteran’s court.
Browser is my other good friend at the state's attorney's office, but he has a super cool job. Browser, a black Labrador retriever, works as an evidence detection canine who is has the unique ability to sniff out electronic devices that are hidden. Don’t ask me how he does it, because I can’t figure it out. All I know is that there are special chemicals sprayed onto the circuit boards inside all electronic devices that make it smell to him like a steak bone!
Oh! Before I forget - I want to give a “good boy” shout out to Browser, who used his super nose to help the FBI in Indiana earlier this month. The FBI called and asked to borrow Browser for an investigation, and he used his super sniffer to lend a... nose. It’s truly amazing what Browser can do.
This summer has been exceptionally busy. Hitch, Browser and I each spent a couple of days hanging with the public at the Lake County Fair in July. We also spent time hanging at the National Night Out and at Gurnee Days in August.
Anyway, that’s it for me this week. I have a feeling one of the other dogs will take over this column when we come back in two months. I’m willing to share the limelight!
That’s all for me!!!
 (Mitch)
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 Carrie Flanigan,
Executive Director
Lake County Children’s Advocacy Center
Welcome!!
Over the last nine years, the Lake County Children’s Advocacy Center (LCCAC) has served over 4,752 children. What many do not realize is that we are the sole entity in Lake County to conduct interviews of children under the age of 18 who have disclosed physical and/or sexual abuse.
The LCCAC functions as a division of the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office, and operates under the Specialized Victims Unit. We are accredited through the National Children’s Alliance, which ensures the highest standard of care to the victims we serve. The core of what we do includes representatives from law enforcement, the Department of Children's and Family Services, the Lake County State's Attorney's Office, medical, mental health and victim advocacy. They all work together under one entity to coordinate intervention and to reduce the potential trauma to the children and families we serve.
The multi-disciplinary team fosters needed support, treatment and education for the children who come to us. This has been proven to enhance the child's ability and willingness to participate in the criminal justice system.
While the LCCAC is affiliated with the Lake County State's Attorney's Office, we also operate as a 501c3 not-for-profit entity. Donations and private funding are critical to our growth and success.
In that regard, we will be hosting our Annual Fundraiser event at Glen Flora Country Club on Dec. 5. This year, the event will help us raise money to build a medical facility on site. On-site, proper medical evaluations hold an important role in the multidisciplinary assessment of child abuse.
Last year alone 1,050 children were interviewed by the LCCAC. These numbers reflect the power of education and the need to keep talking about child abuse.
For more information about our event or how to get involved please call Carrie Flanigan @847-377-3155.
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What you should know about Firearm Restraining Orders
In the wake of an increase in the Illinois suicide rate and national mass shootings, state lawmakers have instituted a new law that allows law enforcement to attempt to block posession of a firearm for people who pose a threat to themselves or to others in the community.
The Illinois Firearm Restraining Order Act (FRO) was enacted Jan. 1 and allows a spouse, parent, child or stepchild to seek a court order in order to seize firearms from a person they believe poses a danger of causing personal harm. The law also extends the ability to obtain a restraining order to people who live with one another, have a dating engagement or share a child in common.
Assistant Lake County State’s Attorney Scott Hoffert, the Chief of the Domestic Violence Division at the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office, said an alarming suicide rate in Illinois coupled with mass shootings across the United States, have shown certain individuals suffering through a mental health crisis should not possess a firearm.
Hoffert said the FRO is not used to take away firearms from law abiding gun owners, the law allows law enforcement to remove firearms from those who pose an immediate threat of harming themselves or others.
“The purpose of the restraining order is to prevent a person going through a mental health episode from hurting himself or others with firearms,” Hoffert said. "For the safety of themselves and others, people are encouraged to contact law enforcement regarding an FRO if a person who possesses guns is engaged in a mental health crisis and poses an immediate threat of harm to themselves or others.”
Hoffert participated in a FRO training session on July 17 at the Lake County Sheriff’s Office in Libertyville. The session included officials from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office and numerous municipal police departments.
This restraining order gives law enforcement and family members a way to remove guns from a home for short periods of time.
Hoffert said people should call their local law enforcement agency, then make a request for a firearm restraining order from a responding officer. The FRO is filed in court at no charge to the petitioner.
The petition would head before a judge to determine whether the person suffering from a mental health crisis is an immediate and present danger to himself or others. The judge would make a ruling depending on the evidence. If approved, the person suffering from the mental health crisis could be forced to turn over any firearms they possess. The restraining order could remain in place for up to six months.
Should the person no longer pose a danger of personal harm during that period, they can petition the judge to have the restraining order lifted.
The Illinois Department of Public Health said suicide is the 11th leading cause of death resulting in more than 1,000 deaths each year in Illinois. In young adults aged 15 to 34, suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death.
Suicide does not discriminate based on race, gender or age, the IDPH said. However, there is a higher risk of suicide for those who have been diagnosed with a mental illness. In fact, the risk of suicide is increased by more than 50 percent in individuals affected by depression, and studies show roughly 90 percent of individuals who die by suicide have one or more mental disorders.
Some groups are at higher risk than others, the Illinois Department of Public Health said. In Illinois, men are three to four times more likely than women to die from suicide, but more women than men report attempting suicide. In addition, suicide rates are higher among middle aged adults; whereas suicide attempt rates are higher among young people.
Hoffert said the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office will work with law enforcement to obtain a firearm restraining order in appropriate cases.
Illinois joins 17 other states and Washington D.C. to adopt the Firearm Restraining Order Act.
Other happenings the Lake County State's Attorney's Office took place in during the months of July and August.
National Night Out
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Lake County State's Attorney Michael Nerheim and others from the state's attorney's office attended National Night Out events in Highland Park, Round Lake Park, North Chicago, Round Lake Beach and Antioch. Many thanks to the various communities who allowed us to come out and say hello! |
MADD 5K Walk/Run
Lake County State's Attorney Michael Nerheim took part in the annual Mother's Against Drunk Driving 5K Run/Walk on Aug. 4. The annual event raises awareness against driving drunk, while also remembers the lives lost to drunk driving. Thank you to MADD for giving us the opportunity to be a part of this event. |
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Stuff the Bus
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The Lake County State's Attorney's Office donated school supplies to the United Way of Lake County for their annual "Stuff the Bus" fundraiser. Numerous backpacks and other school supplies were dropped off at the United Way on Aug. 2. For more information about the fundraiser, check out their website at liveunitedlakecounty.org. |
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 The Lake County State's Attorney's Office will be attending the 7th Annual Suicide Prevention Task Force 5K Walk for Awareness and Suicide Prevention on Sept. 7. The event takes place at Hastings Lake Forest Preserve, Shelter A, 21155 W. Gelden Rd., Lake Villa, IL. Registration for the walk starts at 9:00 a.m. The walk starts at 10 a.m. For more information, go to their website here.
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Lake County State's Attorneys Office will be attending the Lake Bluff Public Safety Day on Sept. 14. For more information, view the police department website on Facebook here.
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Lake County State's Attorney
18 N. County Street, 3rd Floor
Waukegan, IL 60085
847-377-3000
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