Politics & Government

Third Democrat Announces Bid for Will County Judgeship

Stewart Ferreira, a felony supervisor for the Will County Public Defenders Office, said he will be on the March 2014 primary ballot.

Stewart Ferreira has announced he will be running for the Democratic nomination for Will County judge in the 2nd Judicial Subcircuit in the March 2014 primary. He joins Dawn Underhill and Jim Murphy as announced Democratic candidates. Below is his statement announcing his election bid:

I  am running for Democratic Circuit Judge of the 2nd Judicial Subcircuit of Will County. I have practiced law for over thirty years, including approximately twelve years with the Office of the Will County Public Defender. I served four of those twelve years as a Felony Supervisor defending clients of charges ranging from minor traffic and misdemeanor offenses to First Degree Murder, including  one of the last Death Penalty cases charged in Will County. 

I have also been a prosecutor and served as an Assistant Attorney General with the Office of the Illinois Attorney General. My positions as both an Assistant Attorney General and as an Assistant Public Defender Felony Supervisor have created a balanced experience to draw upon to satisfy the demanding requirements of the bench. 

Born and raised on the East Side of Joliet, I attended all Joliet public elementary schools: A.O. Marshall Elementary School, Gompers Junior High School, and Joliet East High School (President of Student Counsel), before graduating from Northern Illinois University and the University of Illinois School of Law. 

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Additional legal experience includes: counseling State Senators and Representatives at the Capitol in Springfield and drafting legislation for those same legislators; serving in the General Counsel’s Office of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs, an economic development executive agency under the jurisdiction of the Governor; facilitating continuing legal education seminars for judges with the Administrative Office of the Illinois Supreme Court; and practicing labor law when representing Chief Judges of various Judicial Circuits in labor disputes and negotiations.  

I also served as an intern in Washington, D.C., with a United States Senator and was the first program intern to be offered a full time staff position, which I declined in order to accept a scholarship at the University of Illinois College of Law.  

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My labor experience also includes serving as a Union Steward for the International Brotherhood of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Local 126, and  as a current Union Steward for the International Brotherhood of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Local 124. 

Civic Background
  • Union Steward for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Local 126 and Local 124, for the Office of the Will County Public Defender.
  • Proud member of Sons of The American Legion, Post 1080, where 9 members of my family, including my father and eight uncles, served in the Armed Services, including one uncle who gave the ultimate sacrifice in the jungles of Vietnam.
  • Juvenile Intervention Program: participant in intervention of minors at risk upon first offense.
  • Board of Directors of the Boy Scouts of America.
  • Judge for Lewis University Moot Court Competition.
  • Board of Directors, Spanish Community Center.
  • Mexican American Coalition of Will County: founding member of a not for profit organization that has spearheaded local fundraising efforts for a new baseball field for over two hundred community boys and girls; the Spanish Community Center, a United Way Agency; and the Mexican Independence Day Parade.

My father, Benjamin Ferreira Sr., served on the first Board of Directors of the Spanish Community Center (a United Way agency), and that civic commitment  continues fifty years later with my placement on the same Board of Directors of the Spanish Community Center.

With over 30 years of legal experience, I have drafted the laws of this State, prosecuted those who have violated the laws of this State, and defended members of the Community who have been charged with violating the laws of this State. I have served at every level of government: County, State, and Federal, and served with the Judicial, Legislative, and Executive branches of government. I have served with the Illinois General Assembly, the Illinois Supreme Court, and with a Governor’s executive agency. I would bring to the bench what would be the broadest, deepest experience one could possibly bring to the demanding requirements of the bench. 

For more information, send email to Stewart5309@att.net or call 815-557-8497.



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