Thursday, January 17, 2013
The Homer Glen wife of a notorious mobster doing 62 years in Leavenworth filed for divorce at the Joliet courthouse.
Sixty-two years must have been just too long for the Homer Glen wife of a mobster sent to Leavenworth to wait. Barbara Calabrese, the wife of Anthony "Tough Tony" Calabrese, filed for divorce from the mob enforcer and suspected hitman at the Joliet courthouse last week. Barbara Calabrese, 53, gave as the grounds for divorce from her 52-year-old husband that he has a "conviction of a felony or other infamous crime," according to her petition. Anthony Calabrese has more than one infamous crime—he was convicted of armed robberies in Morton Grove, Maywood and Lockport. Those cases landed him in Leavenworth until July 2061, according to the Bureau of Prison's website. Before that, he got seven years for a 2002 conspiracy to commit extortion …
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Joel Brodsky bearing the brunt of the blown Drew Peterson murder defense in a Thursday filing was one of many interesting things going on at the Joliet courthouse this past week.
When a jury finds you guilty of killing your wife, it's safe to say you might have some image problems. But in the aftermath of the Drew Peterson murder trial, defense attorney Joel Brodsky may be looking worse than anyone. First there was his very public feud with co-counsel Steve Greenberg. Then Brodsky voluntarily withdrew (or was he discharged?) from the Peterson defense team. And once he was gone, the five lawyers still representing Peterson blamed Brodsky for blowing the case and pointed out that entering into a publicity contract with a suspected wife-killer could be viewed as unsound legal strategy. And then on Thursday, Greenberg got his latest last word in with a devastating, 32-page court filing that paints Brodsky as a a …
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Joseph Messina, of New Lenox, is accused of hitting a man in 2009, putting him in a coma and leaving him with massive head trauma.
The trial of a New Lenox man charged with punching another man into a coma started more than five months ago, and on Wednesday it was back on with testimony from three state police scientists. The scientists were questioned about blood evidence in the case against 24-year-old Joseph Messina, who allegedly beat a man into a coma outside the Mokena bar 191 South back in July 2009. READ: Coma-Puncher Raised Arms in 'Victory' Messina's trial began in June but the high-profile murder prosecutions of wife-killer Drew Peterson and Christopher Vaughn—the Oswego man who executed his wife and three children—forced the postponement of his case. Now, with both Peterson and Vaughn being found guilty, the Messina case is back on. Messina, who is free on…
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Thankfully, it was a short week.
It was a three-day week at the Will County Courthouse, so there wasn't a lot going on. It was nice while it lasted, because that's all going to change next week, starting with Monday's sentencing hearing for quadruple-killer Christopher Vaughn. Vaughn was convicted in September of murdering his wife, 34-year-old Kimberly Vaughn, and three children—Blake, 8, Cassandra, 11, and Abigayle, 12—in June 2007. Vaughn is going to get life in prison. But that's next week. In the week that just ended, we saw Coal City woman Tiffany Unland, 30, fail to convince a judge to further reduce her bond from $120,000 to $50,000. Unland already got it lowered once from $200,000. Unland allegedly killed a Palatine man in a drunken crash on Route 6 in Channahon …
Monday, November 19, 2012
The county and a private nursing company were also named in the suit filed by the attorney for an unidentified man with HIV.
A nurse working at the county jail told an inmate's brother he has HIV, causing him "great humiliation and mental anguish," according to a lawsuit filed in Will County court on Friday. The HIV-infected inmate's name was withheld in the lawsuit. The man's attorney, William R. Cassian, filed a petition to "proceed under (a) fictitious name" on the grounds that the suit "involves very private information that is so sensitive" it is protected by the state's HIV Disclosure Act. The petition says the man is older than 18 and lives in DuPage County. The lawsuit alleges the unidentified man was "confined in the detention center" on Nov. 18, 2011. According to jail records, of the 24 men locked up in the Will County Adult Detention Center on Nov. …
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
The trial of a New Lenox man charged with punching a Joliet man into a coma outside a Mokena bar will resume next month.
The bench trial of a New Lenox man charged with punching a Joliet man into a coma outside a Mokena bar took a back seat to two of the most notorious and highly publicized murder cases in Will County's history. But the trials of wife-murderer Drew Peterson and quadruple-killer Christopher Vaughn are over now, and the case of Joseph Messina is back on. Messina, 24, allegedly knocked 29-year-old Eric Bartels of Joliet to the ground with a single punch outside the Mokena bar 191 South in July 2009. Bartels has been in a coma since. After Bartels fell, a witness testified previously, Messina straddled him, punched his face again, then "raised his arms above his head in victory." The police arrived quickly and found Messina hiding between the …
Monday, July 23, 2012
Eight jurors were chosen in Drew Peterson's trial for the alleged murder of his third wife Kathleen Savio.
Will County Judge Edward Burmila held a marathon jury selection session Monday and empaneled eight jurors for the Drew Peterson murder trial. It was the very first day of jury selection and Burmila kept 31 of 40 prospective jurors for nearly 12 hours—past 9 p.m. Eight more people are needed for the 12-person jury and the four alternates. Peterson, who appeared in court in a gray jacket, dark pants, a new haircut—and without his trademark mustache—stands accused of murdering his third wife, Kathleen Savio. Savio was found drowned in a dry bathtub in March 2004. Depsite the tumultuous, occasionnally violent divorce she was going through with Peterson, and the strange circumstances of her death, the Illinois State Police quickly dismissed her…
Monday, July 9, 2012
Defense attorneys are bidding to have a mistrial declared in the case of a tragic bar fight because the police can't find a photo of the defendant's fist.
The police had 11 days to come up with a photo of the fist they say put a Joliet man in a coma. They failed to find it, and now the attorneys representing the New Lenox man charged with throwing the tragic coma punch are going for a mistrial. The purported picture shows the hand of Joseph Messina, the man standing trial for allegedly pummeling 29-year-old Eric Bartels of Joliet in July 2009 so severely that Bartels is still in a coma. Messina, 23, allegedly knocked Bartels to the ground with one punch outside the Mokena bar 191 South. After Bartels fell, a witness testified, Messina straddled him, punched his face again, then "raised his arms above his head in victory." Mokena police Detective Gregory Selin testified on June 28 that he …
Thursday, June 28, 2012
A Will County judge postponed the trial of Joseph Messina, accused of severely beating a Joliet man, to give Mokena police time to track down evidence.
A photograph the police say they have—but apparently can't find—has prompted a Will County judge to suspend the trial of a New Lenox man charged with punching another man into a coma. The purported picture shows the hand of Joseph Messina, the man standing trial for allegedly pummeling 29-year-old Eric Bartels of Joliet in July 2009 so severely that Bartels is still in a coma. Judge Sarah Jones has put the trial on hold until July 9. The police have until then to locate the photo. Both prosecutors and defense attorneys were unaware the photograph had been taken. They learned of it while a Mokena police officer was testifying Thursday. Messina, 23, allegedly knocked Bartels to the ground with one punch outside the Mokena bar 191 South. …
The New Lenox man charged with putting another man into a coma with a punch in 2009 stood over his victim and celebrated his "victory," a witness testified.
Jason Siegert was parked outside the Mokena bar 191 South on a July night in 2009 and said he had a "front row seat" for the punch that put a Joliet man in a coma. "I saw him punch him in the face, and then I saw the taller guy just fall," Siegert said of the blow that knocked Eric Bartels to the pavement and into a coma. "He was stiff as a board," Siegert said of Bartels, 29. "He fell from the curb straight back and landed on his head." Joseph Messina, 23, faces aggravated battery charges for the alleged attack that broke Bartels' skull and damaged his brain. Siegert testified Wednesday during Messina's trial in Will County court. Siegert said he and another man, Steven Kowalczyk, were parked outside the bar because they were volunteering…
zibble dubering
11:32 am on Wednesday, January 30, 2013
bla, bla, bla. they must have tiny peters. That is why men try to be tought. They all have small peters. more ›