State’s Attorney Birkett to Make Presentation to Illinois Drug Enforcement Officer’s Association Annual Training Conference

DuPage County State’s Attorney Joe Birkett will be one of the featured presenters at the Illinois Drug Enforcement Officers Association (IDEOA) Annual Training Conference being held this week from April 6 - 8 in Peoria.  State’s Attorney Birkett will be making a two hour presentation on the topic of “Problems Encountered While Prosecuting Drug Cases” to highly trained narcotics officers and prosecutors from federal, state, county and local agencies.   The Conference is being held at the Hotel Pére Marquette where an attendance of over 600 law enforcement officials is anticipated.  

Birkett’s presentation will be conducted tomorrow, April 7th, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 Noon and will outline a number of legal issues encountered in drug prosecutions as well as identify ways to improve the evidence gathering process.  Some of the specific topics that Birkett will cover include:

• Search & Seizure;
• Traffic Stops;
• Road Blocks;
• Metal Detectors in Public Buildings;
• Informants;
• Court Authorized Search Warrants;
• Court Authorized Eavesdropping - “Consensual Overhears”;
• Miranda Rights;
• Initial Questioning of Adult and Juvenile Offenders;
• Entrapment; and
• Law Enforcement Safety During Drug Investigations.

In 2002, the IDEOA honored State’s Attorney Birkett with an award in recognition of his extraordinary efforts in addressing the inadequate state statutes on Ecstasy and drug induced homicide.  The legislation which Birkett proposed in 2001 strengthened the penalties for selling Ecstasy and other “club drugs” and expanded the offenses of drug-induced homicide and drug-induced infliction of great bodily harm to include the unlawful delivery of any controlled substance.  This legislation was signed into law effective January 1st of 2002.   According to Birkett, this law also placed Ecstasy and other similar drugs (commonly referred to as “club drugs”), into the same category as some of the most serious drugs, such as cocaine, heroin, morphine, methamphetamine and LSD.  Consequently, delivery of 15 or more Ecstasy pills is now a Class X felony, whereas prior to this law, charges were based upon the net weight of the pills, with a minimum of 200 grams of the substance required to reach Class X penalties.

“All prosecutors should assist in on-going training of police officers in order to acquaint them with case law developments as well as legislative changes that affect the performance of their duties,” State’s Attorney Birkett commented.

State’s Attorney Birkett is a twenty (23) year veteran prosecutor of the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office and is now serving his third term as the elected State’s Attorney.