Thursday, May 16, 2013
A Will County judge ruled Thursday that Bahaa Sam is sane enough to stand trial for allegedly beating his wife to death with a weightlifter's bar.
A Tinley Park man charged with beating his wife to death with a metal bar while their young son watched was found sane enough to stand trial for her murder. Bahaa Sam, 47, appeared before Will County Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak Thursday morning and learned an evaluation of his mental state showed he is fit to face the murder charges. READ: Tinley Park Man Charged With Beating Wife to Death Pleads Not Guilty An interpreter translated the proceedings into Arabic for Sam, who is being held at the Will County jail in lieu of $5 million bond. Sam was represented by Palos Park attorney John Eannace. Police and paramedics went to Sam's house in December after a Tinley Park public works employee spotted the body of Sam's wife, Nermeen Sam, next to a…
Defense attorneys want the judge who found a New Lenox man guilty of punching another man into a coma outside a Mokena bar to step down.
Hours after a Will County Judge found a New Lenox man guilty of punching another man into a coma, she received an email from the state's attorney's office. Attached to the email was a statement from Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow about the case. The judge, Sarah Jones, said she never opened the attachment, but the lawyers for the New Lenox man awaiting sentencing for the fateful punch want her off the case anyway. "It's about the appearance to everyone in the county—it's about the appearance to the citizen's of Illinois," defense attorney Dave Carlson said as he argued Judge Jones should recuse herself from the case of Joseph Messina during a Thursday afternoon hearing at the Will County Courthouse. Messina, 24, was found …
Thursday, April 25, 2013
The Frankfort pediatrician charged with molesting five women in his doctor's office was arraigned on a 16-count indictment.
A Frankfort pediatrician charged with groping five women in his Colorado Avenue office already lost his medical license. Now he can't have a passport either. Dr. Kishor Jain, 59, was ordered to turn in his passport during his arraignment in Will County court Thursday morning. Jain's attorney, Gerald Kielian, said the passport had already been surrendered the the sheriff's department, but Jain would still comply with the order. Special prosecutor Dave Neal, who asked Judge Robert Livas to order Jain to surrender his passport, said he believes Jain is originally from India. Jain faces 10 counts of felony criminal sexual abuse, five counts of misdemeanor battery, and a single count of criminal sexual assault for allegedly groping five women …
Saturday, April 20, 2013
A former Plainfield North gym teacher pleaded guilty to meeting a teen for sex. And that was just one of the things going on in court this week.
More than two years after the police caught her in a car with a half-dressed student from the high school where she was a teacher, Ashley Blumenshine copped a plea. Blumenshine, a 30-year-old former Plainfield North gym teacher, will have to do 11 days in jail. She will also spend two years on sex offender probation and 10 yeas on the Illinois sex offender registry. She tearfully apologized before she was taken into custody to start doing her time. Let's look at what else was going on in the area's courthouses this past week: Check out all these stories and more on our Facebook page.
Saturday, April 6, 2013
A New Lenox man spoke of his "horrific" ordeal in the county jail after he was arrested for a murder someone else was wanted for.
We started the week off by talking with the New Lenox man jailed for two weeks for a murder allegedly committed by someone else with the same name. Pedro Hernandez, 67, said his time in the Will County jail was "horrific," and that he's looking for a lawyer to talk to about filing a lawsuit. But Hernandez's ordeal was just one of the things going on last week. There was also: Check out all these stories and more on our Facebook page.
Thursday, March 28, 2013
An email from the state's attorney's office to the judge in the New Lenox coma puncher case is enough to get the convicted man a new trial, according to court papers filed by defense lawyers.
On the day a New Lenox man was to be sentenced for punching another man into a coma outside a Mokena bar, the judge announced she received an email from the prosecutor's office. Even though Will County Judge Sarah Jones didn't read the email, lawyers for convicted coma-puncher Joseph Messina say that just the fact she got it means she should start a whole new trial and leave it to another judge to decide the case. Messina, 24, was found guilty in January of punching 29-year-old Eric Bartels of Joliet outside the Mokena bar 191 South in July 2009. The attack left Bartels in a coma. Messina was set to be sentenced March 6 but his attorneys, Dave Carlson and Ken Zelazo, instead argued for a new trial based on a lack of evidence, among other …
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
A man claims he suffered "severe and permanent injuries" while taking care of a woman's cat.
A "vicious" cat so grievously wounded a Homer Glen man that he is suing its owner for at least $100,000. The suit, filed at the Will County Courthouse on behalf of William Baxter, claims the cat's owner, Christine Bobak, "should have known (her) cat had vicious propensities in that, upon information and belief, the cat had attacked at least one other person on at least one prior occasion." But whether Bobak or Baxter knew the cat was vicious or not, Baxter ended up taking care of the animal in April 2011, the suit said, and that was when the cat "without provocation, viciously attacked, bit and clawed" Baxter. The suit did not make clear whether Bobak's pet was just some run-of-the-mill house cat or something more considerable and exotic, …
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
The alleged triggerman jailed in connection with last week's 7-Eleven parking lot murder appeared at the Bridgeview courthouse and was sent back to jail without a bond.
The Markham teen charged with gunning down a man he met through Craigslist to barter electronic equipment appeared at the Bridgeview courthouse Tuesday morning and was sent back to jail without a bond. READ: Markham Teen Charged With Murder in 7-Eleven Shooting Christopher Dyson, 18, faces murder and armed robbery charges in connection with Thursday's fatal shooting of 24-year-old Thomas Mastro of Tinley Park. Dyson and Mastro reportedly met outside a Tinley Park 7-Eleven so Dyson could trade his iPhone for Mastro's Playstation 3 and Playstation Vita. The deal reportedly was set up after Mastro posted an ad on Craigslist. READ: Tinley Park Man Fatally Shot in Argument in Store Parking Lot Dyson tried to rip Mastro off, then pulled a gun …
Thursday, March 21, 2013
A West Virginia man is suing the Tinley Park Hilton Garden Inn for allegedly failing to corral a drunken guest.
A West Virginia man claims a drunk knocked on his hotel room door and then knocked him around. The West Virginian, identified as Michael Kidd, is suing the Hilton Garden Inn where he says he was attacked in November 2010. Kidd, a resident of Hurricane, WV, sued the Tinley Park hotel in Cook County Court last year but the lawsuit was moved this week to Will County. According to the lawsuit, Kidd was in his room at the Hilton "when an intoxicated hotel guest knocked on his room door and when Michael Kidd opened the door he was physically assaulted and violently battered by the intoxicated hotel guest." The intoxicated hotel guest is not named in the lawsuit. The staff at the Hilton knew about the drunken guest prior to the attack, the suit …
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
If you've got wit, add your punchline to Patch's weekly comic and win a personalized print.
Are you blessed with insight and good humor? Or just bored today? Share your wit with your south suburban neighbors by entering Patch's comic caption challenge. Just add your dialogue for today's comic in the comment section of this post. Our only requirement is that you keep it clean! At week's end, we'll pick the winning punchline based on how many of us here at Patch giggle and smile at your contribution. The user who produces the winning punchline will get a personalized proof of the comic, with the winning words and a credit line, from cartoonist Chuck Ingwersen and Patch. Congratulations to O.L. Taxpayer, with the winning caption to last week's Poker Dog cartoon: Hey Butch, just a hint. Stop wagging your tail when you get a good "…
Gym shoe
4:06 pm on Friday, May 17, 2013
Because the laws are to easy .nobody gets punished for anything anymore. Get caught stealing in one of those foreign countries and they cut off your hand. They don't fool around with you. more ›