Lake County Gazette

In Lake County, Illinois, the SAFE-T Act continues to produce outcomes that defy common sense — and now we have two cases, in the same jurisdiction, that prove it.

On July 17, 2025, McHenry resident Eric Walleck posted a threatening TikTok video aimed directly at Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart and a public defender. In the video, Walleck vowed to “hunt down” both officials, warning it “won’t be pretty” and describing the outcome as a “gruesome sight.” Prosecutors say these words were credible threats that placed both individuals in fear for their safety. The charges — two counts of threatening a public official — are serious Class 3 felonies under Illinois law, each punishable by up to five years in prison.

When Walleck was brought before a judge, the court determined he was too dangerous to be released pending trial. Under the SAFE-T Act’s no-cash-bail system, that means pretrial detention without the option to post bond. Walleck has remained in the Lake County Jail since his July 22 arrest.

No one disputes that threats of violence against public officials should be taken seriously. But in the very same county, another case shows how the SAFE-T Act applies a completely different standard when the victim isn’t in the political class.

In February 2025, 37-year-old Megan Bos was last seen alive. She was reported missing to the Antioch Police Department on March 9, 2025. A month later, on April 10, 2025, her body was discovered inside a bleach-filled trash can on the property of Jose Luis Mendoza-Gonzalez, an illegal alien living in Waukegan.

According to police, Mendoza-Gonzalez admitted that Bos died in his basement, after which he placed her body in the trash can, concealed it, and kept it on his property for weeks. He is charged with concealment of a death, abuse of a corpse, and obstruction of justice. The cause of Bos’s death remains under investigation, but the facts are not in dispute: her body was hidden and left to decompose inside a trash can for nearly two months.

Despite the deeply disturbing nature of these allegations, Mendoza-Gonzalez was released pretrial under the SAFE-T Act.

This is the paradox: TikTok threats against a politician and a public defender are deemed “too dangerous” for release, while the act of concealing a dead woman’s body in a trash can — an act that clearly shows disregard for human life and the law — is apparently not.

The SAFE-T Act was sold as a reform to stop low-level, non-violent offenders from languishing in jail simply because they couldn’t afford bail. In practice, it has created a patchwork system where pretrial detention depends less on common-sense public safety concerns and more on whether a case checks narrow statutory boxes — and whether prosecutors push to detain the defendant.

Cases involving political figures or government officials get maximum detention effort. Cases involving ordinary citizens, even in shocking or violent circumstances, can slip through the cracks. The result is a system that prioritizes the safety and dignity of the political class far more than that of the general public.

If the SAFE-T Act worked as promised, both Walleck and Mendoza-Gonzalez would be in custody awaiting trial. Instead, Lake County residents see two very different sets of rules: one for politically sensitive cases, and another for everyone else. That’s not justice — it’s politics dressed up as reform.

– Michael Scornavacco is a grassroots conservative leader and Republican Committeeman for Antioch 6 in Lake County, Illinois.