Alex R.

Assistant State\'s Attorney (Domestic Violence Supervisor) @Winnebago County State\'s Attorney\'s Office

Rockford, IL, US

I have been a prosecutor with the Winnebago County State\'s Attorney\'s Office since 2015 and I first began prosecuting domestic violence cases in 2017. In 2022, I became the Supervising Attorney of our office\'s Domestic Violence Unit. Since that time, I have led the transition to a more aggressive approach to proving crimes of domestic violence, otherwise known as \"evidence-based prosecution.\" That approach has led to an increase in our success rate at the felony level, which now regularly stands at approximately 80%. Along with that success, I\'ve overseen the expansion of the DV Unit into the largest department within our office\'s Criminal Division. I currently lead a multi-disciplinary team of 16 employees dedicated to evidence-based prosecutions in the absence of victim testimony. I supervise 5 other trial attorneys, each with their own caseload, and I am personally responsible for the most serious and complex cases among them. Those cases include strangulation, stalking, sexual assault, and murder. Additionally, I train and mentor the attorneys in my unit. I also supervise an expanded administrative and support staff which includes secretaries, victim service providers, two field investigators, and two grant-funded digital communications investigators. As part of my role, I meet regularly with law enforcement and community stakeholders to discuss coordinated efforts to improve the effectiveness of our prosecutions and the safety of domestic violence survivors. I conduct in-house trainings for our office on trial techniques and the rules of evidence. I also train law enforcement at various levels on best practices in domestic violence investigations. In my career as a prosecutor, I have taken over 50 cases to trial and I have secured multiple jury verdicts of guilty to the charge of first degree murder.

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Bachelors, History and Philosophy

Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology

J.D.