This media circus over the federal indictment of state Rep. Carol Ammons, D-Urbana, and Champaign County Clerk and Recorder Aaron Ammons highlights yet again the damnable practice of prosecutors and police using the press to try cases in the media before defendants have had a chance to defend themselves in court.

From the president of the United States to the homeless shoplifter, the police and prosecutors have for many, many decades always made public the evidence they claim to have collected against someone to television stations, radio stations and newspapers, obliterating the person’s legal right to the presumption of innocence.

Now that the Ammonses have been found guilty and sentenced in the public’s imagination, let us not forget that Carol and Aaron Ammons have a long and distinguished record of exemplary service and sacrifice for this community.

Their many accomplishments over the decades have benefited us all.

If law enforcement is to have any meaning at all about intervention, correction and rehabilitation, then a person like Aaron Ammons should be celebrated as the prototype for what it means to reform yourself to become a productive member of society again.

Since his felony conviction over 34 years ago, he has paid every due there is to pay to transform himself into the prominent community servant/leader he is today. It was Aaron and I who used to do late-night sessions of “solving the world’s problems” while Aaron scrubbed toilets, mopped floors and took out the trash when he was a maintenance tech at the University of Illinois.

He rose to become president of his labor union. Before county clerk was ever thought to be a possibility, it was Aaron Ammons who volunteered to go door-to-door to register underserved neighborhoods to vote. He did this while raising his kids responsibly, honoring his mother and father faithfully, and serving his wife with unwavering devotion.

As an appointed Ward 3 Urbana alderman, Aaron was ahead of the curve to see the draconian punishments against cannabis were unnecessary. When he ran for and won election to county clerk, he received over 44,000 votes. Since that time, he has expanded early voting, and brought vote-by-mail to Champaign County, which only increases in popularity by the year.

The end result has been record voter turnouts in recent elections. Republicans have no greater friend than Aaron Ammons if they want access to the ballot, transparency in how the ballots are counted and accuracy in the election results.

Ever since watching “Sister Carol” in 2005 load a semitrailer full of food and supplies for victims of Hurricane Katrina, it has been miracle after miracle to see her have a seat at the table where decisions get made.

Rep. Ammons has successfully authored over two dozen bills that have become law with bipartisan support. She helped protect the Mahomet Aquifer, prevent price-gouging of collect calls from prison, improved education access from early childhood to workforce development, expanded the earned income tax credit, prohibited using parking tickets to suspend people’s driver’s licenses, ended using incarceration in a county jail to extort cash bail from poor families, ended the practice of dangerous people charged with serious felonies using money to buy their way out of jail, expanded funding for mental-health treatment for police officers, prohibited cities and counties from entering into contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, expanded funding for freedom schools, expanded the childhood nutrition program, established restraining orders for firearms, and expanded drop boxes and curbside voting.

The list goes on and on how this “outsider activist” has had a significant impact on business as usual in the Illinois General Assembly for the last 11 years.

Carol and Aaron, as well as daughter Titianna, have been valued personal friends of mine for over 20 years. I only know them to be the most upstanding, honest, loyal and loving people I have ever met.

I stand with them now in this dark hour as they have stood with all the families who have suffered under the racialized drug war and mass incarceration in this brutal, unforgiving carceral system.

I pray the Ammonses will be given full opportunity to have a voice against these charges, as we all would want if a secret grand jury came knocking on our door.

Christopher Evans represents Ward 2 on the Urbana City Council.