When pressed repeatedly in a phone call, she refused to cite the specific statute, instead suggesting the State's Attorney's office or police were responsible. She claimed state law barred them from altering documents already in court files. 14, CBS 2 shared the list of cases it found contained the information with Clerk's office spokesperson Jalyne Strong-Shaw. Instead, they've blamed police and prosecutors, and falsely claim ed various laws prevent them from taking action. Since CBS 2 told Brown's office about the problem in mid-September, they've resisted making any changes. But in Illinois, the clerk of court is charged with maintaining documents. The Privacy of Child Victims of Criminal Sexual Offenses Act doesn't say which government body should ensure the confidential information of victims is protected. After about 10 minutes - and for a fee of 11 dollars and 23 cents - an employee handed over the records, no questions asked. On one occasion, in the criminal department on the 10 th floor of the Daley Center, CBS 2 producers requested records for several cases that contained the sensitive details. To see whether officials would provide hard copies, in addition to leaving them unredacted in the court's computer system, CBS 2 tried twice to purchase the documents.īoth times, employees gave unredacted copies to CBS 2, just like any other court file. Members of the public can normally request printed copies of court file s. If you have a story about sexual assault you want to share with CBS 2, you can contact us confidentially. Several cases had multiple victims in total, CBS 2 confirmed the information of 21 child victims was publicly available. Of those 20 case files, 17 contained the private information. Of 27 cases filed that year, only 20 could be found in the court's computer system. On the advice of an ethicist, CBS 2 d ecided not to contact any of the victims whose information it found. CBS 2 is not disclosing the year it looked at or the specific search methods it used to find the cases. To find out how widespread the problem is, CBS 2 searched the court files of every case of sexual assault of a minor during a single year. While researching another story about sexual assault, CBS 2 producers realized these details were available in police records contained in public court files, which are open to anyone who walks into the Daley Center downtown. It's clearly spelled out in the 1986 Privacy of Child Victims of Criminal Sexual Offenses Act, which says any record in a child sex offense case "shall be restricted to exclude the identity of any child who is a victim." "But most immediately, there has to be a way to restrict access to that information, like, right now. "Whose-ever responsibility it is to rectify this, it sounds like there's a lot that needs to be looked into," said Sarah Layden, who runs Chicago sexual violence advocacy group Resilience. State's Attorney Kim Foxx threatened to sue Brown over her inaction, according to a letter obtained by CBS 2. The informatio n, which CBS 2 found i n numerous cases, is s ensitive: full names, home addresses, phone numbers, and other details for children as young as 5 years old who were sexually assaulted.ī rown's office only sealed the records CBS 2 found after the Cook County Chief Judge's office and State's Attorney's office stepped in. Th e person charged with p rotecting those victims' privacy in the records, Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown, refuse d to restrict access to them for more than a month after being told about the problem. CHICAGO (CBS) - Cook County officials left the personal information of child sex crime victims in public court records, violating a state law that requires those details be kept hidden.
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