Politics: The legend of Kevin Lyons grows
I received the following from a someone who’s in touch with Peoria County politics. I have no reason to doubt its accuracy:
On Tuesday, March 26, [Peoria County State's Attorney Kevin] Lyons showed up in traffic court at the Peoria County Courthouse and tried a DUI jury trial. Needless to say this was very unusual because this was Lyons’ first jury trial in approximately five years. It seems that this was an attempt by him to show that he is now going try some cases. When he showed up in traffic court for the case of the State of Illinois vs. Patrick Jefford before Judge Rebecca Steenrod, he claimed that he was going to mentor one of his young Assistant State’s Attorneys. Lyons proceeded to conduct the entire trial by himself; opening statements, direct examination of the witnesses, cross examination of the defendant, and closing arguments. During the trial which lasted into Wednesday, Lyons had approximately ten of his prosecutors sitting in the courtroom to watch him in action. In addition, he invited PJS criminal reporter Andy Krazitz to watch the case. Defendant Jefford, who was charged with Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol, Failure To Signal, Driving On the Wrong Side of the Road, Improper Lane Usage, and Resisting Arrest, was represented by a young (28 yr old) Assistant Public Defender named Jeff Hall. At the end of the trial the jury found the defendant not guilty on all charges except the Resisting Arrest charge. Lyons essentially got his ass handed to him by the jury on a simple DUI case. Of course the PJS reporter wrote nothing about the case, and because of their cozy relationship with each other, most likely won’t.
Peoria County has the highest crime rate in the State and our current State’s Attorney can’t even win a simple DUI case. Maybe if he was in the courtroom more trying cases instead of speaking around the Country our crime rate would be better. Then again, maybe we are better off if he’s not in the courtroom. Either way, it explains the high crime rate in Peoria County.
I wonder why the Journal Star never mentioned this?
Anyway, posts that mention Kevin Lyons are available here.
Tags: Kevin Lyons
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
Interesting. This is clearly news, yet none of the professional news organizations in the area covered it. Congrats, Bill. Another coup for Citizen Journalism.
On the other hand, maybe the facts pointed to a lack of guilt on the part of the defendant.
If the facts pointed to a lack of guilt on the part of the defendant then why would he choose this case? If you are going to all this trouble to make a point, common sense would be to stack the deck in your favor.
What, no spin yet from Matt Jones?
Ne feceris ut rideam
you guys watch too much court tv.
“I wonder why the Journal Star never mentioned this?”
That’s Andy Kravetz, to you. While this is undoubtedly an international conspiracy, why not e-mail him and ask?: akravetz@pjstar.com.
The defendant could have been innocent.
And you think there was a “smear campaign” against Henry Holling?
[...] But if they DO catch you, you might luck out and have Kevin Lyons personally prosecute your case. [...]
I should note that I am the young attorney who represented Patrick Jefford. I feel I should say a couple things: 1) I was surprised Mr. Lyons tried the case. 2) I was honored to go up against him.
The case was a difficult one for he and his assistant, Jeff Manderscheid, to try. They both put on the best case they could muster. Mr. Lyon’s participation definitely helped the State’s position because the jury deliberated for nearly 6 hours. He must have made one impression or another on the jury for them to deliberate that long.
While this is, by no means, an endorsement of Mr. Lyon’s upcoming election, I personally thanked him for trying the case. After the trial, an attorney congratulated me and said, “I’ve been practicing law in Peoria for 22 years and in the short time you’ve been a defense attorney you’ve done two things I haven’t: You went against Kevin Lyons in a jury trial and you beat Kevin Lyons in a jury trial.” I should say I didn’t “beat” Mr. Lyons. I have a deep respect for the jury system and in this case, the State did not have enough facts favorable to their side to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt. While I feel confident in the arguments I put forward on behalf of Mr. Jeffords, we do not want to impugn the job our State’s Attorney did. Around this area, it is unheard of for a State’s Attorney to actually try a case. For whatever reason, he decided to try the case and I’m a more confident, more prepared, more experienced attorney because of it.
I must say, thank you for your interest. If any reader gets in trouble, feel free to contact my law firm, Hall, Owens & Wickenhauser L.L.C. at 309-681-4691 or at http://www.howlawfirm.com.
Billy this would be a good time for you to say, in the immortal words of Roseanne Rosannadanna: “Oh. Never mind”.
Mr. Hall: I really ought to charge you $50 for the ad you just snuck onto my site.
The real story here is not that Lyons lost the case. As Mr. Hall points out, State’s Attorneys usually do not try cases, so the fact that Mr. Lyons tried the case is clearly newsworthy. You can bet that if Mr. Lyons had won, a nice puff piece would have appeared in the JS. I would not be surprised if the reporter filed a story, but an editorial decision was made not to publish.