Following is the final in our series of Windy City Times interviews with openly gay candidates for the 8th judicial subcircuit primary this March. Jon Erickson has the party slating and just won the first position on the ballot.
WCT: Let's get started by talking a little bit about your legal background.
Erickson: I graduated in 1990 from John Marshall Law School. The last year of my time at John Marshall, I was a law clerk with the Cook County Public Defender's office, clerking in the Murder Task Force. From there, I was then hired with the Public Defender's Office.
WCT: Was that the kind of law you wanted to go into?
Erickson: Yes, I was always just naturally attracted to constitutional issues, and criminal law is based in that, both in the sense of the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendment, but particularly the rules of evidence are constitutionally based. Before that I clerked at a private civil law firm, where people fight over money, but that didn't do it for me. The rights of individuals was what attracted me.
WCT: Was there something you faced growing up that caused that interest?
Erickson: I don't think so. Looking back, I think however, growing up, I was a member of a marginalized, oppressed minority [gay], I would think now contributed, in hindsight, to that path.
WCT: Was your sexuality an issue in the Public Defender's office?
Erickson: Not at all. As a matter of fact, I'll never forget when I first walked into their main office downtown ... and I felt as if I had died and gone to heaven. It was women, at least 50% ... and people of color ... I could be making this up in my imagination, but I swear there was a person in a wheelchair. So it was diversity central. And I felt as if I was finally where I belonged. ... I always felt very comfortable being out at the public defender's office, if not protected. We're union, AFSCME, so that helps quite a bit.
WCT: The work would seem intense.
Erickson: It's a daily basis, seeing human behavior at its worst. Surviving emotionally within that environment is challenging. The balance between cynicism and practicality is a thin line. I learned early on to not take my cases personally.
WCT: How far do you follow a case?
Erickson: There is a division of labor within the public defender's office, in that you're assigned to some courtrooms, especially on the felony side, where there are very compartmentalized steps to the process. There was talk about instituting 'vertical' representation ... where someone gets the case from the very beginning, up though to disposition. They never quite got around to doing that. I started out on what was called the Early Entry Unit, which was lineups. It's difficult. The public defender is appointed by the judge, so usually the process has taken several steps without us being there.
That's when I discovered that public defenders don't go to court like other lawyers but are actually in a courtroom all day, every day. When I first was told to report to Room 100 at 26th and California, I got there, and it was a dark, empty courtroom. ... So, finally the sheriff shows up, and I said, 'I'm looking for Room 100.' He said, 'You've found it.' And I said, 'Well, I'm looking for the public defender's office,' and he points to a desk with a cardboard box filled with papers, and he says, 'That's your desk. This is your office.' Very often our office is the actual courtroom, and we handled as much as 90% of the cases on the call.
WCT: What did you move on to?
Erickson: I went on to handle DUIs, and hit-and-run cases, driving on a revoked licenses, traffic court. From there, I went to Domestic Violence Court, 13th and Michigan. I spent, I believe, 19 months there. Now, you talk about a burn-out spot. Most people try to avoid it—prosecutors, defense attorneys. There again, you handle maybe 30 files in a day, all domestic violence, over an 18-19-month period ... the advantage is you come to understand the Illinois Domestic Violence Act inside and out. In fact, during my time when I was assigned to the Domestic Violence Court at 13th and Michigan, I was working as an unpaid legislative aide to [state Rep.] Larry McKeon, and Larry was in his first term. And he had said he was interested in having one of his first pieces of legislation that he introduces as a state representative to be domestic violence related. And I said, 'I can help you with that.' ... So I wrote legislation to have an order of protection served on the perpetrator earlier. ... I designed a strategy, a system, whereby [a domestic violence defendant] would be served with the order of protection much, much earlier in the process.
WCT: Did you deal with same-sex domestic violence?
Erickson: Now, I deal with quite a bit of same-sex domestic violence [in private practice]. I have no data to back this up, however, I have recently seen an increase, at least in my practice, in same-sex domestic violence arrests. I do not believe this is because it is happening more. I believe it is a function of law enforcement responding to our education efforts. I remember when I was at 13th and Michigan in the mid-'90s ... they had rooms within the courthouse that were divided geographically, much like the greater court system is. So cases that arise in certain series of neighborhoods or communities, like the lakefront, go to specific courthouses or, in a domestic violence context, specific courtrooms. So this one courtroom was where most of the cases involving our community would go. And it was a case that involved two women ... and I remember the state's attorneys arguing as to which one would have to go alone into the victim interview area to interview the victim. Now, when I go in on same-sex domestic violence cases, the climate is completely different.
Still, there is some concern as to whether judges and prosecutors understand that there is a power dynamic that develops in a same-sex relationship, just like there is in a heterosexual one. Domestic violence is about power and control, so if a judge or a prosecutor doesn't understand that there is a power dynamic, then they're not going to understand that it's really domestic violence.
What's interesting, too, is that there's also, in the domestic violence context, a statistical correlation between domestic violence and HIV, in that, if HIV is present in the household, there's a more than five times greater likelihood that there will also exist domestic violence. This was a study in Kansas City that came out, I think, in 2001. Because of that, what I am finding in my personal cases, there is a mandatory 72-hour 'stay away' order as a condition in any domestic violence arrest, which is a wonderful thing—we like that. It's a cooling-off period, you can't go back to the place. In the old days, they would let the guy out, and he'd go back and beat her up. ... However, because HIV plays a role in same-sex domestic violence, when there is a 72-hour stay away period, the perpetrator is sometimes left without his HIV medications. [State Rep.] Sara Feigenholtz and I are writing legislation to address that issue together.
I spent a great deal of time in the misdemeanor system, like everybody does. I ended up at Belmont and Western, the courthouse that hears all the cases originating on the lakefront. Because Cook County is the largest consolidated court system in the world, and it's divided up into geographic sections, Belmont and Western is conceivably the gayest courthouse certainly in the Midwest, and perhaps the United States. ... I asked to stay there longer than the average public defender, and was allowed to stay in that particular courthouse, because I had evolved into somewhat of a liaison from the courthouse to our community, and I thought I could serve the community better from there. I was there five and a half years. ... A lot of times, when I was there and a case was not mine, and it was a simple battery, I could look at the police report and in about three seconds, see if there was something more going on with respect to a hate crime.
In the felony room, I was there as a defense attorney where I handled most of my personal involvement in hate-crime cases. I was in the unfortunate position of representing the perpetrators of hate crime ... . I always thought that was pretty weird, and it was uncomfortable at first. But then I realized you have a job to do, and you do it. Actually, the first hate crime I did was in the mid-'90s, and the victim was African-American. I noticed state's attorneys and police officers at the time had trouble with the mixed-motive problem. I took that problem back to Sara Feigenholtz and Larry McKeon, and said, 'we've got to get started with people in the community.' [My input] did contribute to the debate. And also, I found, 100,000 people go through the Cook County Jail on an annual basis, and the inmates test positive for HIV at a rate eight times higher than the general population. So in any given criminal courtroom in Cook County, HIV is a daily issue. Anything from basic dignity issues—I have seen court personnel move to the other side of the room ... and HIV-positive persons housed in the Cook County Jail are not always getting their medicines. It is the public defender's responsibility to make sure they are getting the medication that they need while in custody.
WCT: How do the transgendered get secure prison space?
Erickson: That's done. It's been done as long as I've known about it. They usually put them in the women's clothing, and then we have three separate cells, locked up behind each courthouse. Another issue that has come to my attention is the Illinois Hate Crimes Statute and its sister statute, which is called the Illinois Institutional Vandalism Act. The Hate Crimes Statute is designed to protect individuals. The Institutional Vandalism Act is designed to protect the institutions from hate-motivated vandalism. ... Lesbian Community Cancer Project is one of the few social-service agencies that specifically labels itself [as a gay or lesbian organization], either by virtue of sexual orientation or any other. So I always felt it was particularly vulnerable. And as a member of [Illinois Attorney General] Lisa Madigan's transition team on the Hate Crimes/Civil Rights Committee, we were asked if any of us had any legislative ideas. I said, 'yes, if you look at the Illinois Institutional Vandalism Act, it's deficient in that it does not accurately mirror the Illinois Hate Crimes Statute in terms of protected categories.' When you look at the Vandalism Act, it doesn't include gender, it doesn't include sexual orientation, it doesn't include mental /physical disability. ... I wrote that legislation last winter, I've shared it with [Reps.] Harry Osterman, Larry McKeon, and Sara Feigenholtz, and it's been submitted to the Institutional Review Board.
WCT: How did your candidacy develop?
Erickson: It began in the mid-'90s. I was assigned to a courtroom at Harrison and Kedzie, a judge at the time, we worked together for about a year and a half. ... He pulled me aside one day and said, 'I think you should seriously consider running for judge one day. I think you'd be excellent.' And from then on, I've spoken with other judges, and other people in the legal community, I sat down with a lot of people in the gay and lesbian community in the mid-'90s, and began formulating a strategy.
WCT: How did you decide this race, this year?
Erickson: I was waiting until I felt I had sufficient experience and maturity, and big-picture understanding of how one runs for judge, and why one should run for judge. It's not the glamorous job that most people think it is. The way that I have seen members of the gay and lesbian community treated in criminal courtrooms, and some issues that are particular to our community, dealt with, I felt I was in a position to accept responsibility and step up and try to make some changes.
WCT: Did you get the Democratic Party endorsement because of that groundwork?
Erickson: It was a combination of things. In 1992, the legislature divided Cook County into 15 judicial subcircuits [to make it more community-based and diverse]. Prior to that, you had to run countywide. ... The Democratic Party responded with regard to my candidacy by stating that the work that I was doing as a lawyer was done within the borders of the 8th subcircuit, that I've really been doing community-based work consistent with the very reason they created the subcircuit system. That, combined with my work within the gay and lesbian community and beyond, politically, activism ... .
WCT: Did you have a party sponsor that went into this with you?
Erickson: In the criminal system ... it's a spectator sport in that system, when you're sitting around, you're not in the lockup or the courtroom, you're probably in the judge's chambers, shooting the shit. And one of the things you talk about, the spectator sport within the system, is judicial politics. And over the years, I watched so many people who wanted to be judge do it correctly, and so many do it incorrectly. You don't wake up one day two months before the slating, decide you want to be a judge ... and think that's how it's done. On slating, the most recent study from the Joyce Foundation, conducted by the Chicago Council of Lawyers, demonstrated that if you are the unslated candidate in a subcircuit, you have an 8.9% chance of winning. If you are the slated candidate, that number goes up to 76%. What I did was, outside my home base, which is the 44th Ward, through Tom Tunney and Sara Feigenholtz, John Cullerton ... I began to establish relationships with the ward committeemen who make up the subcircuit. [I started] actively pursuing it last February. My [party] endorsement was unanimous.
WCT: What is your private practice like?
Erickson: Since I left the public defender's office and started my own practice in April 2002, [my practice] is very particular to the lesbian and gay community. I've continued in that sort of public service vein, but I have to pay my bills. I do pro-bono work for AIDS Legal Council. They never had a criminal referral before. I continue to do the political work, for example, writing the legislation.
WCT: Do you have any particular goals for your judgeship should you be elected?
Erickson: If I should be honored to serve, there is some choice. They do try to push you into one of the systems between civil and criminal, obviously consistent with your resume. So I obviously would be assigned within the criminal system, which is where the issues that are particular to the gay and lesbian community can be addressed from more of an individual human and consistent basis. ... Because I do specialize in same-sex domestic violence, I think I could contribute to the greatest degree if I were to be assigned to the courthouse at 13th and Michigan, the Domestic Violence Courthouse. No judges ever want to be assigned there, but I would love it.
