After her daughter died, a mother in Antioch, Illinois, is trying to change the state’s SAFE-T Act, which changed the way bail works.
The SAFE-T Act got rid of cash bail in Illinois and made a list of specific charges that could keep criminal suspects in jail before their hearing.
Jennifer Bos’s campaign to change the law is already picking up speed.
One of the charges against Jose Luis Mendoza-Gonzalez of Waukegan, Illinois, is that he hid the body of Jennifer Bos’s daughter Megan after Megan Bos went missing in February. Mendoza-Gonzales is charged with two counts of hiding a death, abusing a body, and getting in the way of the law.
Under the SAFE-T Act, none of those charges were serious enough to warrant detention in Illinois. However, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has since taken Mendoza-Gonzalez into custody.
Megan Bos’s funeral took place in the spring. Jennifer Bos, though, said that her daughter’s story isn’t over yet.
She said, “This is how you make a difference one little bit at a time.” “You just keep pushing, you keep using your voice, talking to anybody who will listen.”
Jennifer Bos wants changes to be made because Mendoza-Gonzalez, who is accused of hiding Megan Bos’ body in a trash can with bleach in a Waukegan garden for almost two months, was not allowed to be detained before his trial, even though he was charged with a Class 4 felony.
The police said that Mendoza-Gonzalez told them that Megan Bos had overdosed while he was not in the room. Jenifer Bos admitted that her daughter had used drugs and gone to rehab before, and that she had relapsed in the weeks before she died.
According to the Lake County coroner’s office, Megan Bos’s death was “undetermined.”
Jennifer Bos wants Mendoza-Gonzalez to be locked up so he “can’t have the comforts of home.” Jennifer Bos thinks that if someone is charged with a felony crime, they should be held until their sentencing. People were also afraid that he would run away because of his legal status.
“If you suspect this person could have killed somebody, would you not want to err on the side of caution and hold him until you could say otherwise?” Jennifer Bos asked. He was freed in less than 24 hours, right? They had not even had a chance to look into anything.
Jennifer Bos brought this message all the way to the White House, where President Trump heard it. Three days later, Mendoza-Gonzalez was arrested again, this time by ICE because he is a Mexican citizen who is in the U.S. illegally and ICE said he could be deported because of the charges.
ICE has also said that Mendoza-Gonzalez cut Megan’s head off. The lawyers for the Lake County state, the Bos family, and the Lake County, Illinois coroner’s office have all denied that claim. This week, the coroner’s office said again that Megan’s head was not cut off before or after she died. They also said that even though her body was breaking down and had been exposed to chemicals, there were no signs of trauma or fight.
The 19th Judicial Circuit Court in Lake County said that ICE was to blame for the “significant threats and harassment” that court staff faced as a result.
According to Jennifer Bos, the fact that ICE is involved in the case and that Mendoza-Gonzalez is free is a distraction that is making her family even more angry and upset.
ICE says that the judge is to blame for Mendoza-Gonzalez’s freedom.
But Jennifer Bos says she doesn’t blame the judge. Instead, she says the SAFE-T Act is to blame because it only lets people who have been charged with certain crimes be held before their sentencing.
“She had no choice,” she said of the Lake County judge who heard Mendoza-Gonzalez’s custody case. “People think that they can still use their own discretion to decide and kind of override those rules, but they can’t.”
Irv Miller, a legal analyst for the chief judge in Lake County, also said that ICE was wrong about the judge’s power to decide whether to hold Mendoza-Gonzalez or free him in this case.
Jennifer Bos wants judges in Illinois to have more freedom to decide if a defendant should be jailed before their hearing. Some politicians in the state of Illinois also back her.
Illinois state Rep. Tom Weber (R-Fox Lake) said, “You know, I think in everyone’s mind, if you’re looking at who is a flight risk, a citizen of a foreign country.”
Weber said that he and Jennifer Bos are trying to get rid of or change the SAFE-T Act. This law got rid of cash bail in Illinois and made a list of specific charges that criminal defendants could be held before their trial.
Jennifer Bos said she wants to keep other crime victims’ families from being as shocked as her family was when they found out Mendoza-Gonzalez had been freed.
