Anita Alvarez | |
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Cook County State's Attorney | |
Incumbent | |
Assumed office 2008 |
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Preceded by | Richard A. Devine |
Personal details | |
Born | Chicago |
Political party | Democratic |
Residence | Chicago |
Occupation | Attorney |
Anita Alvarez is the Cook County State's Attorney.[1][2][3] Alvarez is the "first Hispanic woman" elected to this position.[4] She also was the "first Latina" to win the Democratic nomination for state attorney of Cook County.[5][6]
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Prior to attaining this position, Anita Alvarez served as the Chief Deputy of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, Chief of Staff to Cook County State’s Attorney Richard A. Devine, Chief of the Special Prosecutions Bureau, Deputy Chief of the Narcotics Bureau and Supervisor of the Public Integrity Unit.
Anita Alvarez was elected as Cook County State's Attorney in November 2008. Alvarez faced two challengers from both the Republican and Green Party in November 2008's general election. The two challengers were Cook County Commissioner for the 16th district Tony Peraica, and the Green Party's Thomas O'Brien.
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Candidate | Votes | Percentage | |||||||
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Anita Alvarez | 138,187 | 24.96% | |||||||
Tom Allen | 131,298 | 23.72% | |||||||
Howard B. Brookins Jr. | 125,000 | 22.58% | |||||||
Larry Suffredin | 110,295 | 19.92% | |||||||
Robert J. Milan | 27,576 | 4.98% | |||||||
Tommy H. Brewer | 21,289 | 3.85% |
In 2001, Alvarez was honored as Person of the Year by Chicago Lawyer magazine.[7]
In 2009, Alvarez received an honor from the March of Dimes at its annual breakfast.[8]
Alvarez has been intensely criticized by groups concerned with wrongful convictions. In 2011, the Innocence Project launched a petition criticizing her refusal to act on new DNA evidence that exonerates nine men convicted of rapes and homicides, five of whom remain incarcerated. [9] [10]
Alvarez graduated from St. Paul - Our Lady of Vilna School in Chicago. She attended Loyola University Chicago as an undergraduate, and Chicago-Kent College of Law as a law student.[11]
Anita Alvarez is currently pursuing charges against Tiawanda Moore who is being charged with recording a police officer's inappropriate sexual advances towards her. According to the Huffington Post "When Chicago police answered a domestic disturbance call at the home of Tiawanda Moore and her boyfriend in July 2010, the officers separated the couple to question them individually. Moore was interviewed privately in her bedroom. According to Moore, the officer who questioned her then came on to her, groped her breast and slipped her his home phone number."[12] In Illinois it is against the law to record anyone, audio or visual, without his or her consent.