Chief Judge Postpones Courthouse Cell Phone Ban

Chief Cook County Circuit Judge Timothy C. Evans will delay the enforcement of a cellphone and electronics ban in 13 Cook County criminal courthouses until April, he announced today.

The ban, which officially takes effect on Monday, will not get enforced until April 15, creating a three-month “grace period” to raise awareness about the prohibition and create storage spaces for the devices in the courthouses, Evans said in a statement.

“During the grace period, the Circuit Court of Cook County will work with the Cook County sheriff’s department to remind people entering a courthouse, communication devices are prohibited,” Evans said in the statement. “It will be strongly suggested devices remain in the car.”

Those who arrive without a car may bring the devices into the courthouses during the grace period, but the devices must remain in the “off” position.

Evans issued a new administrative order today, which supercedes his original order on the cellphone ban dated Dec. 11.

In recent weeks, the judge received some criticism for the ban regarding how it would get implemented and where people would store their cellphones if they arrived by public transit and could not place the phone in a vehicle.

Leaders from several domestic violence agencies asked Evans to exempt the Domestic Violence Courthouse, at 555 W. Harrison St., because they said abuse victims need their phones for safety and as a piece of evidence showing abusive text messages or voicemail messages.

The new order expands the list of people who remain exempt from the rule to include domestic violence advocates and counselors, people who go to a courthouse to obtain orders of protection and participants in a domestic violence assistance program.

Lawyers, judges and members of the media already remained exempt from the ban.

Also, Evans said the circuit court will assign a person “to work with Cook County’s real estate and facilities department heads to quickly find a solution” for storage of the devices.

“I think Judge Evans heard our concerns and then took them a step further, which is highly unusual in someone who is administering the largest unified court system in the world,” said Denice Wolf Markham, executive director of Life Span Center for Legal Services and Advocacy, who co-wrote a letter to Evans on behalf of domestic violence groups criticizing the ban.

Newly exempted groups also include people with disabilities who need to use an electronic device to communicate, people required to wear electronic monitoring devices and parties to orders of protection required to carry a global positioning device.

Evans instituted the ban after criminal court judges raised concerns to him about people photographing jurors and witnesses with cellphones in the courthouse.

“We understand this may be an inconvenience to some, but our primary goal is to protect those inside our courthouses and perhaps save lives in the process,” Evans said in the statement.

Dawn Dalton, executive director of the Chicago Metropolitan Battered Women’s Network, said she feels pleased with the changes but sees potential problems when sheriff’s deputies will need to ask those entering the courthouse their reason for coming, to determine whether they receive an exemption.

Frank Bilecki, spokesman for the Cook County sheriff’s office, said the department remains pleased with the delayed enforcement.

“Having time over the next few months to do a good public awareness campaign would really benefit the public in all of this,” he said.

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