Illinois Senate Republicans have introduced a series of bills to increase penalties for repeat offenders of orders of protection, no stalking orders and civil no contact orders.
An Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence report showed a 14% increase in deaths stemming from domestic violence between 2023 and 2024. The same report noted a 140% increase in domestic violence-related deaths since 2022.
In a press conference Thursday introducing the legislation, domestic violence survivor Dakota Sebring said in her case, the abuser violated an order of protection multiple times but was only put in jail for a few days every time it was violated.
“Current law leaves a burden on victims to continue to prove the danger of what's being done to them, and to have to face these repeated violations over and over again,” Sebring said.
Sebring said she's called the police 15 times in the past year about protective order violations. She said she wants to continue working with state lawmakers so the repeated breaking of orders of protections stops and puts abusers behind bars.
Senate Republican Leader John Curran, a former Cook County prosecutor, has introduced a bill that would shift the burden of proof from the prosecutor to the defendant when they are seeking pretrial release after being charged with violating an order of protection.
The legislation would also apply to civil no contact orders, stalking no contact orders and domestic battery arrests.
“It is not fair to have the burden on victims like Dakota in the criminal justice process. The burden should be on the offender to prove to a judge that they are not an imminent threat to the victim or to the public in general,” Curran said.
State Sen. Darby Hills of Lake Zurich introduced a measure that would double the minimum jail time from 24 to 48 hours for those who violate of orders of protection or civil no contact orders. Repeat offenders would also see minimum jail time double from 48 to 96 hours.
“Orders of protection do not work unless they are enforced," Hills said. "When they are ignored or repeatedly violated without real consequences, they fail the very people they were there to protect in the first place.”
In 2024, WGLT reviewed more than 100 police reports over a six month period related to order of protection violations in McLean County. Fewer than one third led to a conviction or pending charge.
During the same time period, the McLean County state's attorney declined to prosecute Matthew Moore for violating an order of protection four times before he killed his ex-wife, then took his own life.
Hills also introduced a bill that allows for law enforcement to charge repeat order of protections violators with a felony.
Hills’ bill was created to support state Sen. Steve McClure’s proposal that would automatically make it a felony to violate an order of protection, while repeat violations would call for a higher class of felony.
“The general increase will give law enforcement more options to enforce violations, and increased charges will hopefully result in jail time, keeping abusers away from victims and allowing victims to get needed services,” McClure, a Republican from Litchfield, said.
Hills and McClure said they want to give the tools to law enforcement to detain alleged violators of orders of protection and make victims feel safe.
Curran said the bills are currently being discussed in committees, but there is no timeline for a vote.
Illinois passed Karina’s Law, which enables law enforcement to proactively remove firearms from those subject to emergency order of protections without waiting for a court hearing.
Curran said it is too early to tell if the law, which took effect last year, is effective but it is another tool for law enforcement.
