DOROTHY BROWN Richard J.

Daley Center
CLERK OF THE CIRCUIT COURT Room 1001
Chicago, Illinois 60602
(312) 603-5030
www.cookcountyclerkofcourt.org

OFFICE OF THE CLERK OF THE CIRCUIT COURT OF COOK COUNTY

October 21, 2020

VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL

Honorable Kimberly Foxx
Cook County State’s Attorney
500 Richard J. Daley Center
Chicago, IL 60602

Dear State’s Attorney Foxx,

I am writing in response to your letter dated October 20, 2020 - Re: Duties Under the Privacy of Child
Victims of Criminal Sexual Offense Act, (“Child Victims Act”), which alleges that the Clerk of the Court
has failed to comply with the Privacy Act, and that the “statute places the duty to restrict the information
exclusively with the Clerk.” Just as you are, I am very concerned about protecting the privacy of child
victims of criminal sexual offenses, so they are not re-victimized by having their identities publicized.

Your letter has mischaracterized my staff’s efforts in regard to complying with the Child Victims Act. Your
letter indicates that your office offered to request a court order on our behalf to seal the related cases. See
my staff’s email to your staff on September 28, 2020, where she reiterated their conversation. Clearly the
email indicates that your staff reached out to my office to request to go into court on the Clerk’s behalf to
request an ombudsman order asking the judge to direct the Clerk’s Office to redact or alter all records in
the Clerk’s files that contain the name of a child sex crime victim and globally, any sexual assault victim.
My staff responded that we did not want your office to request a court order for the Clerk’s Office to redact
the name of child victims. My staff responded this way because our employees should not be required to
engage in the practice of law, by trying to assess whether or not a case is related to a child victim or not. In
addition, the Clerk’s Office should not alter or obscure court records in any way. There is NO instance, at
this current time, where any Clerk’s Office employee, actually alters, obscures or changes a court record
under any circumstance. The Clerk’s Office has never been ordered to alter, obscure or change a court
record. My staff actually indicated in her September 28th email (in the next to the last paragraph) that we
would like the State’s Attorney’s Office to assist us in requesting a General Administrative Order,
so that the Clerk’s Office could seal the arrest report, as opposed to redacting the arrest report

In keeping the court record, the Clerk cannot create the record and cannot redact any document nor seal a
document absent a court order, as your office suggests. In addition, the Clerk must have authority to seal
or restrict an entire court record. That authority is generally in the form of a court order, as in the case of
expungements and sealings. Even though the expungement law says that certain cases shall be expunged
or sealed, if certain criteria are met, the Clerk of Court does not restrict the case until we receive a court
order.

In an effort to resolve this matter we reached out to the Circuit Court Clerk’s Offices of DuPage, Kane, and
McHenry counties to determine how they are handling these types of cases. The results are as follows:
1
 1. DuPage County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office indicated that the State’s Attorney submits an order
asking the court to impound and seal the documents. The Clerk’s Office indicated that the State’s
Attorney identifies the cases and go into court without intervention of the Clerk’s Office and
requests the sealing routinely, when there is a child victim. Then the court orders the Clerk to seal.
2. Kane County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office indicated that one of three things happen: (a) The State’s
Attorney will request an order impounding and sealing the entire case where there is a child victim,
when the arresting agency includes the name in the arrest report and complaint; (b) The arresting
agency will file the complaint and arrest report as a Jane or John Doe; or (c) The State’s Attorney
will review the documents and request that the case remain unsealed, but only the documents with
the victim’s information are sealed and impounded, and not the entire case.
3. McHenry County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office indicated that they programmed a Child Victim Act
case indicator into their computer system, based upon a State’s Attorney Opinion that says, that they
are able to auto-seal these cases.

In conclusion, as we have stated from the beginning, the Clerk’s Office cannot alter court documents and
redact victims’ names, nor can our Clerk’s Office employees practice law and attempt to identify when a
case involves a child victim. However, we would be willing to program our computer system to restrict
access to an entire Child Victim Act case with the proper authority.

According to my staff, as a result of a meeting held today, between our offices, and the judiciary, for cases
going forward, your office has agreed to work with the Clerk’s Office to identify cases with child victims
and to file notification forms in these instances. That action will trigger the Clerk’s Office staff to restrict
the record. For past cases, your office agreed to help the Clerk’s Office identify the statutes related to cases
with child victims, and the Clerk’s Office will develop a process to restrict those documents using your
letter and the opinion of your office as the authority.

Finally, I would like to express my dismay over the threat to sue the Clerk’s Office in the midst of our trying
to work out a solution. I must say that in my 20 years as Clerk of Court, while working with the State’s
Attorney’s Office, and where our staffs have expressed varying opinions, even with strong discourse, there
has always been a mutual respect shown, and there has never been a threat to sue the Clerk’s Office.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call me at 312-603-5071 (office); 312-780-9414 (cell).

Sincerely,

Dorothy Brown
Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County

Cc: Gloria Legette, Acting General Counsel

Renee Banks, Executive Clerk for Court Operations and Administration