Illinois' special prosecutors have strong political ties and little oversight

On a cool September night in 2014, 18-year-old Pietro Mautino sped down a rural county road about 100 miles southwest of Chicago, his friend at the wheel of his bronze Kia sedan. The headlights were off. Around 1:35 a.m., police pulled them over. The car reeked of cannabis, police reported. An officer watched Mautino toss a plastic pill bottle into the back seat. Searching the car and Mautino’s black Prada bag, he inventoried a hydrocodone pill, 14 clonazepam pills, a baggie of marijuana, some…