Chicago Criminal Lawyer Blog
I have been defending people charged with crimes in Illinois for more than 34 years, and I can tell you something that surprises a lot of people: The State does not always have forever to charge you with a crime. Police may investigate a case for months. Sometimes for years. Witnesses may come forward long after something allegedly happened. Detectives may reopen an old file. Prosecutors may decide years later that they suddenly have enough evidence to file felony charges. But prosecutors are still bound by the law. One of the first things I look at when somebody comes into my office facing an old criminal accusation is the statute of limitations. I want dates. When did this supposedly happen? When did the police first find out about it? When did the alleged victim report it? When did investigators identify my client? When were charges actually filed? And, most importantly: Did the State wait too long? That question can change the entire case.
What Is a Statute of Limitations?
A statute of limitations is a legal deadline. It limits the amount of time the government has to begin a criminal prosecution. Illinois criminal statutes of limitations are primarily governed by 720 ILCS 5/3-5 and related provisions of the Illinois Criminal Code. The idea behind these laws makes sense. The older a case becomes, the harder it can be to determine what actually happened. People forget. Witnesses disappear. Memories change. Documents get thrown away. Businesses close. Cellphones are replaced. Surveillance videos are erased. Electronic records disappear. Physical evidence can deteriorate. And sometimes witnesses begin remembering things differently after hearing the same story repeated for ten or fifteen years. Yet the accused is still expected to defend himself. That is why statutes of limitations matter. They are not loopholes. They are laws passed by the legislature that place limits on the government’s power to prosecute somebody indefinitely. And when the State misses that deadline, a defense lawyer needs to recognize it and act.
The General Rule for Illinois Felonies
For many felony offenses in Illinois, the general statute of limitations is three years from the date of the offense. That sounds simple. It isn’t always. If prosecutors claim an offense happened on a certain date, you might think you can just count forward three years and determine whether the case was filed on time. Sometimes you can. Other times the prosecution will claim an exception applies. They may argue the statute was extended. They may argue the clock stopped running. They may argue the offense was not discovered until later. They may argue DNA evidence changed the applicable deadline. They may argue the defendant left Illinois. In other words, when prosecutors want to keep an old case alive, do not expect them to simply shrug their shoulders and say, “You’re right. We waited too long.” They are going to look for a legal basis to proceed. The defense should be looking just as closely for a legal basis to stop them.
Some Felonies Can Be Prosecuted No Matter How Much Time Has Passed
There are serious criminal offenses for which Illinois does not impose the ordinary limitations period. The existing statutory framework includes crimes such as murder and attempted murder, along with certain other serious offenses and specified sexual offenses involving children. In those cases, the passage of time alone will not necessarily prevent prosecution. That is why we sometimes see murder charges filed twenty or thirty years after an alleged crime. I personally represented a client in Kane Countyt that was charged with murder 17 years after the victim disappeared. Modern DNA testing has also allowed police departments to reopen cold cases that sat untouched for decades. But an old case presents its own defense issues. If prosecutors want to resurrect a case from twenty years ago, I want to know what happened to the evidence during those twenty years. Who had it? Where was it stored? Was it sealed? Was it properly documented? Was anything lost? Was anything contaminated? What happened to the witnesses? Did they make statements back then that are different from what they are saying today? Did investigators ignore evidence that pointed in another direction? The prosecution may see an old case as unfinished business. The defense needs to look at what twenty years have done to the reliability of that case. Those are two very different perspectives.
Some Crimes Have Longer Statutes of Limitations
Illinois law also gives prosecutors additional time in certain categories of cases. Examples involve financial crimes, identity theft, fraud, official misconduct, certain crimes involving minors, and cases involving DNA evidence. These cases can become extremely technical. Let’s talk about a fraud case. The transaction may have happened years ago. The defense says the clock started running when the transaction occurred. The alleged victim says, “I didn’t discover the fraud until years later.” The prosecutor then argues that the case is still timely because the applicable statute allows additional time based on discovery of the offense. That means the case may turn on a deceptively simple question: When did the alleged victim really know what was going on? I would not simply take the person’s word for it. I would look for records. Emails. Text messages. Letters. Bank statements. Accounting records. Earlier complaints. Communications with lawyers. Communications with business partners. Anything showing that the alleged victim knew about the supposed problem earlier than claimed. If someone says in 2026, “I first discovered this in 2025,” but I have an email from that person discussing the exact issue in 2021, we have a problem with the prosecution’s timeline. And timelines win cases.
Tolling the Statute of Limitations: When the Clock Stops
Another concept prosecutors sometimes rely on is called tolling. Tolling means that certain periods of time may not count toward the statute of limitations. Think of it as stopping the clock or a time-out. The original article identifies circumstances that may raise tolling issues, including situations where a defendant is outside Illinois or allegedly conceals himself to avoid apprehension, as well as certain circumstances involving DNA evidence or minor victims. This can become a major battleground. Suppose someone moves from Illinois to Florida. Ten years later he gets charged with an old Illinois felony. The prosecutor may argue that the time he spent outside Illinois should not count. But I want to know more. Did he flee? Or did he simply move? Did he change his name? Or was he living under his real name the entire time? Did he hide his address? Or did he have a driver’s license, a job, utilities, property records, tax records, and a publicly available address? Was there a warrant? Did he even know police were looking for him? These details matter. Calling somebody a “fugitive” does not make him one. Calling somebody’s move to another state “concealment” does not automatically make it concealment. The State still has to support its position.
Can Prosecutors File Charges After the Statute Has Expired?
People sometimes assume that the courthouse has some automatic system that rejects an old criminal case. It doesn’t work that way. A prosecutor can believe the case is timely. A defense lawyer can believe the exact opposite. The judge may ultimately have to decide who is right. If charges appear to have been filed outside the applicable limitations period, the defense can raise the issue and seek dismissal. But that requires somebody to spot the problem in the first place. This is why I do not like vague dates when reviewing an old criminal case. “About three years ago” tells me very little. “Late 2022” is not much better. I want the precise timeline. The alleged offense date. The report date. The investigation date. The date police identified the suspect. The date evidence was discovered. The date DNA was tested. The date prosecutors approved charges. The date the prosecution formally began. Then I compare those dates to the statute. That is how you analyze whether the State is legally entitled to proceed.
Example: An Old Fraud Case
Suppose somebody is charged in DuPage County with felony theft by deception involving a business transaction that occurred more than five years earlier. The alleged victim claims: “I didn’t realize I had been defrauded until two years ago.”That statement can be extremely important because the prosecution may rely on a discovery-based extension of the limitations period. But I would not stop there. When did the alleged victim first complain? When did the alleged victim question the transaction?Were emails exchanged about the dispute? Did the person hire a lawyer? Did the person demand repayment? Was there litigation? Were there accounting records showing that the alleged problem had already been identified? That is what a good investigation is supposed to do. You do not accept the State’s timeline. You test it.
Example: A Sexual Assault Allegation Based on Old DNA Evidence
Old DNA cases require another kind of scrutiny. Suppose an alleged sexual assault occurred more than a decade ago. Evidence was collected back then, but years later new testing allegedly connects the evidence to a particular person. The State may rely on special statutory provisions involving DNA evidence to argue that the prosecution is still timely. That does not end the defense inquiry. It begins it. I want to know:
*When was the evidence collected?
*Who collected it?
*Where was it stored?
*How many people handled it?
*When was it first tested?
*Was it tested more than once?
*Why was additional testing performed?
*When did police supposedly obtain the match?
*Was the chain of custody intact?
*Was there any possibility of contamination?
*And does the DNA evidence actually prove what prosecutors claim it proves?
People hear the letters “DNA” and sometimes assume the case is over. It isn’t. DNA evidence still has to be collected properly, preserved properly, tested properly, interpreted properly, and connected to the alleged crime in a meaningful way. A laboratory result does not eliminate the need for a defense.
Example: The Defendant Moved Out of Illinois
The defendant moved away from Illinois. The prosecution argued that the limitations period should be tolled because he was outside the state. The defense showed that he was not hiding. He had a publicly known address. He was living openly. That distinction mattered and contributed to a favorable resolution. I have seen prosecutors characterize facts in the way most favorable to the prosecution. That should surprise nobody. It is the defense lawyer’s job to show the court the rest of the story. A person who deliberately disappears to avoid arrest presents one situation. A person who moves to another state and lives openly under his own name presents another. Do not let those two situations get blurred together.
Do Not Talk Yourself Into an Old Felony Case
This is particularly important if detectives contact you about something that supposedly happened years ago. The detective may say: “We just want to clear a few things up.” Or: “You’re not under arrest.” Or: “We’d like to hear your side.” That does not mean you should start talking. If police are asking you about an old felony investigation, you should assume there is a reason. They may already have witness statements. Phone records. Financial records. DNA evidence. Social media records. Old police reports. Statements from former friends, spouses, girlfriends, boyfriends, coworkers, or business partners. They may be trying to fill one missing hole in the case. Do not volunteer to fill it for them. If there is a statute-of-limitations issue, you should understand that issue before giving investigators information that might help them argue around it. I cannot emphasize that enough. You do not have to prove your innocence to a detective during an interview. And you certainly should not assume that talking will make the investigation disappear.
Statutes of Limitations Are Not “Technicalities”
I hear that word constantly. “Technicality.” When a legal rule benefits the accused, somebody inevitably calls it a technicality. But when the same law gives prosecutors additional time to bring charges, nobody seems to call that a technicality. The statute of limitations is Illinois law. Period. The legislature decided how long prosecutors should have to bring various criminal charges and under what circumstances those periods may be extended. The prosecution gets the benefit of those extensions when they legitimately apply. The defense is equally entitled to enforce the deadline when they do not. That is not exploiting the system. That is how the system is supposed to work.
What I Look for When I Review an Old Felony Charge
When a potential statute-of-limitations problem exists, I want to reconstruct the entire history of the accusation. I look at the alleged offense date. I identify the exact crime charged. I determine which limitations statute applies. I examine whether the law changed during the relevant period. I determine when the prosecution officially began. I look for claimed tolling periods. I investigate the alleged discovery date. I examine when police actually identified my client. Then I start looking for contradictions. If the alleged victim claims a late discovery, I look for evidence of earlier knowledge.If the State claims my client was hiding, I look for evidence showing he was living openly. If prosecutors rely on DNA evidence, I determine when it was collected, tested, and connected to the defendant. If witnesses are telling a different story today than they told years ago, I want the earlier statements. I do not start with the assumption that the prosecution’s timeline is correct. I make them prove it.
Been Charged With an Old Illinois Felony? Do Not Ignore the Dates.
If you are facing a felony charge involving something that supposedly happened years ago, the dates may be every bit as important as the accusation itself. Do not assume the case is too old to prosecute. But do not assume the prosecution is timely either. Have somebody actually analyze it. There is an enormous difference between: “The case seems pretty old.” and: “The Illinois Criminal Code required this prosecution to begin by this date, no valid tolling period applies, and the State filed the charge after the deadline.” The second argument can be made in court. The first one cannot.
Contact Illinois Criminal Defense Lawyer James G. Dimeas
I have spent more than 34 years defending people accused of crimes in Chicago, Cook County, DuPage County, Kane County, Lake County, and throughout the Chicago area. I have handled serious felony cases involving old allegations, contradictory witnesses, DNA evidence, complicated investigations, questionable police work, and legal issues that can determine whether the prosecution should be allowed to continue at all. My approach has always been the same:
Do not assume the police got it right.
Do not assume the prosecutor’s version is the only version.
Read the reports. Examine the evidence. Check the law. Build the timeline. Find the weakness.
That is what criminal defense work is. Over the course of my career, I have received recognition from organizations including the American Society of Legal Advocates, the National Trial Lawyers, the National Academy of Criminal Defense Attorneys, Expertise, the American Institute of Criminal Law Attorneys, and Attorney and Practice Magazine. I am also rated “Superb” by Avvo.
Those recognitions are appreciated. But when somebody is sitting across from me worried about a felony charge, awards are not what matters. The case matters. The evidence matters. And the law matters.
If you have been charged with an Illinois felony based on an allegation from years ago—or police are contacting you about an old investigation—do not guess about whether the statute of limitations has expired. Find out.
Call James G. Dimeas & Associates at 847-807-7405 to discuss your case and schedule a free consultation. When the government waits years to accuse somebody of a crime, the defense should make them account for every one of those years.
Call James Dimeas Today for a Free Consultation
James Dimeas, is a nationally-recognized, award-winning, criminal defense lawyer, with over-34 years of experience handling criminal cases in Chicago, Cook County, DuPage County, Kane County, and Lake County. Recently, James Dimeas was named a “Top 100 Criminal Defense Lawyer in the State of Illinois for the Year” by the American Society of Legal Advocates. James Dimeas was named a “Best DUI Attorney” and a “Best Criminal Defense Lawyer in Chicago” by Expertise. James Dimeas was named a “Top 100 Criminal Defense Trial Lawyer” by the National Trial Lawyers. The National Academy of Criminal Defense Attorneys awarded James Dimeas the “Top 10 Attorney Award for the State of Illinois.” James Dimeas is rated “Superb” by AVVO, the highest classification possible for any criminal defense lawyer in the United States. The American Institute of Criminal Law Attorneys recognized James Dimeas as a “10 Best Attorney for Client Satisfaction.” Attorney and Practice Magazine gave James Dimeas the “Top 10 Criminal Defense Attorney Award for Illinois.
With over 33 years of experience defending clients in Cook County, DuPage County, Kane County, and throughout the Chicagoland area, I have the knowledge and experience you need on your side. Call now at 847-807-7405 or fill out our online form schedule your consultation.
Additional Blogs:
Do I Need a Lawyer if I Am Innocent, by James G. Dimeas, Chicago Criminal Lawyer Blog, May 12,2021.