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Kennedy wins handily in Democrat Lake County State’s Attorney race
Chris Kennedy
Updated: March 29, 2012 3:39PM
A civil litigator from Libertyville won the Democratic primary election for state’s attorney, according to preliminary voting results.
More than 57 percent of the vote went to Chris Kennedy, 43, while about 28 percent went to Karen Boyd Williams and the remaining votes went to Assistant State’s Attorney Reginald Mathews of Lindenhurst, according to unofficial results.
“The voters have endorsed my vision of reform and real leadership for the State’s Attorney’s Office. I’m the candidate with the background, experience and track record to make some real changes to bring real reform to the office,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy received more than 14,000 votes. Williams, 40, has practiced family, real estate and bankruptcy law since 2007. She received more than 7,000 votes, according to unofficial results from Lake County Clerk.
The numbers are based on vote totals from the 415 precincts in Lake County and do not include absentee ballots or all the early voting ballots.
Mathews received more than 3,600 votes, according to the unofficial results. He has been an assistant state’s attorney since 2001. Kennedy worked as an assistant state’s attorney for four years and currently works as a defense attorney. The father of three said he has outlined a specific set of proposals to bring change to Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office.
He wants to create a Conviction Integrity Unit, which would run as an independent unit of the office. The unit would address concerns over alleged wrongful convictions and oversee training and supervision in future cases to prevent wrongful convictions.
Kennedy would like to issue criminal charges against Jorge Torrez in the 2005 murders of Laura Hobbs and Krystal Tobias.
Kennedy also said he wants to pursue court orders necessary to submit the DNA in the Holly Staker murder.
“That is a specific set of serious reforms to bring this office where it should be,” Kennedy said.
He also said he wants to establish a Sex Crimes Unit and foster transparency and public confidence in the State’s Attorney’s Office.
