What the Record Establishes
- A produced August 11, 2022 email from the investigating detective placed a written assessment of weak drug proof into this prosecutor’s inbox.
- The office’s own policy lists "material that raises doubt as to our case" as Type 1 Brady material requiring disclosure as soon as possible.
- The same subject returned as a revocation ground in April 2026, after a written prescription clearance already existed.
What They Have Not Produced
- Whether the detective’s August 11, 2022 written assessment was ever disclosed, and on what date.
- The log of Brady-list notification letters sent under Rule 3 in cases this prosecutor charged.
- Any Rule 13 written report, or a written confirmation that this prosecutor filed none.
This petition does not ask anyone to declare Benjamin Dillon guilty of anything, and it does not ask anyone to declare a single defendant innocent. It asks the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office to run its own published rules across this prosecutor’s caseload and put the answer in writing.
The office already wrote the rule it is being asked to follow
In 2022 the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office published a written policy on evidence and witnesses that must be disclosed under Brady. It is not aspirational. It closes with fifteen numbered rules and the sentence: “Failure to comply with these 15 rules below will result in discipline up to termination.”
Three of those rules decide this petition:
- Rule 1 requires prosecutors to disclose all Type 1 Brady material “as soon as possible” to “defense counsel/pro se defendants” — including “the fact that a witness is on a ‘Brady list’ maintained by the office.” Self-represented people are named in the text.
- Rule 3 requires that when a prosecutor learns a witness-officer is on the list, the supervisor “shall then send the defense the formal letter.”
- Rule 13 requires, in its closing parenthetical, that “prosecutors shall report violations of the constitution to the State’s Attorney in writing.”
Each of those rules generates a record. A letter, a report, a date. Those records either exist or they do not, and either answer is informative.
What the produced record already establishes about Benjamin Dillon
Everything on this page traces to documents the government itself released. The full dossier carries the citations, the page images, and the hashes. The panel above is the short version.
What this petition asks for
Every item below is a request that the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office do a thing its own 2022 written Brady policy already says it does. None of them requires anyone to admit wrongdoing. All of them are answerable in writing.
-
Produce the Rule 3 letters
Rule 3 of the office’s written policy states that when a prosecutor learns a witness-officer is on the Brady list, “The supervisor shall then send the defense the formal letter.” Produce a log of every such letter sent in a case prosecuted by Benjamin Dillon — dates and case numbers, no content required.
-
Produce the Rule 13 written reports
Rule 13 states that “prosecutors shall report violations of the constitution to the State’s Attorney in writing.” Produce every such written report filed by Benjamin Dillon. If the count is zero, say so in writing and date it.
-
Apply Rule 1 to pro se defendants
Rule 1 requires disclosure of all Type 1 Brady material to “defense counsel/pro se defendants” — the policy names self-represented people expressly. Confirm in writing that every pro se defendant charged by Benjamin Dillon received the same Brady-list notification a represented defendant would have.
-
Refer the affected convictions to the Rivera unit
The office runs a Conviction Integrity Unit named for Juan Rivera. Refer to it every felony conviction obtained by Benjamin Dillon in which a witness later placed on the Brady list testified, and publish the referral count.
-
Publish the disclosure transmittal history
The policy says the office “will not engage in a strict materiality analysis prior to disclosure” and errs toward over-disclosure. Publish, per case, the dates on which discovery and Brady tenders actually went out. Dates alone. That single log either supports the policy or does not.
Why the county cannot call this unreasonable
On September 6, 2022 this same office vacated Herman Williams’ 1993 murder conviction after 28 years. Part of the reason was that the State’s own expert had given an earlier, broader time-of-death opinion that was never disclosed to the defense before trial. State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said at the time: “Every conviction must have integrity; it must be grounded in science and in fact.”
That is the standard the office set for itself, out loud, in a press release it wrote. This petition asks it to apply that standard on a schedule instead of one exoneration at a time.
Sign this petition
Add your name to the demand that Lake County produce the Rule 3 letters, the Rule 13 reports, and the pro se disclosure confirmations for every case Benjamin Dillon charged.
Who has signed
How your signature is handled
Public
Your display name, your standing, your town, and your case number if you give one. Nothing else. Pick any display name you want — there is no verification step and no requirement that it be your real name.
Private
Your account of what happened and your contact details. These are never rendered on any page of this site. They exist so a demand or a filing can be written with real specifics behind it.
Not collected
No IP logging, no browser fingerprint, no third-party analytics on this form. A random token is stored in your browser so one browser holds one editable signature per petition.
What this is not
This is not a court filing and it does not toll any deadline. If you are inside an appeal window or a post-conviction window, that clock keeps running. Sign this and also talk to a lawyer.
If you were prosecuted in Lake County by anyone
This page is one of four. There is also a county-wide petition that is not tied to any single prosecutor, and an index of all of them. If your case involved a different lawyer entirely, the county-wide page is the one to sign.