Saturday, May 4, 2013
A Caribbean music record company owner has a drug dog's lack of punctuality to thank for getting him out of a felony pot charge, but he still couldn't get his marijuana back.
Martin Scott was looking at a possible 30-year prison sentence after a police dog found pot in the trunk of his car back in September 2011. But a Cook County judge decided this week that the 41 minutes a state trooper made Scott wait for the dog to show up was too long, and ruled that the marijuana could not be used as evidence against him. Without that evidence, prosecutors decided to drop the case. Scott, 52, said he is the owner of Kingston, Jamaica, based UIM Records. He also said he obtained his marijuana legally in California and asked if he could have it back. He was refused. Scott left the Markham courthouse a happy—and free—man, and strolled away puffing on his electronic cigarette. Not too many other people written about last …
Saturday, March 9, 2013
A Plainfield murder trial ended with a guilty verdict on the week's last day—and much, much more, in this edition of Court Supervision.
A week-long murder trial wrapped up with a guilty verdict Friday afternoon. The jury took two days to convict Ricardo Gutierrez, 23, of first-degree murder. Gutierrez gunned down Javier Barrios in October 2007 in Plainfield. Barrios was 18 when he was killed. Jury selection started Monday in the Will County Courthouse. Gutierrez's attorneys, Jeff Tomczak and Paul Napolski, said the killing was carried out in self-defense. That was just one of the things going on in court last week. There was also: Find all these stories and more on our Facebook page
Saturday, February 23, 2013
The week was packed with Drew Peterson, but it looks like we're not going to be seeing so much of him anymore.
It was Drew Peterson all day every day in the week that just ended. It started out with a hearing to see if he needs to have a new murder trial, and that hearing went on for another two days. A college professor and a retired judge both got on the witness stand and told how former Peterson attorney Joel Brodsky not only failed to provide effective counsel at this summer's murder trial, but also committed an ethical violation by entering into a publicity contract with his client. Brodsky's former law partner got up as well and claimed Brodsky physically attacked her in the Chicago office they shared. Even Brodsky had to testify, and told all about the 11 cents he and Peterson made off a website set up to solicit donations for the disgraced …
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Drew Peterson is either getting a new trial or he's heading to prison.
On Tuesday, the attorneys for Drew Peterson will make a final push to keep him out of prison by securing a new murder trial. Will County Judge Edward Burmila has set aside two days for the hearing, but some involved predict it will last much longer. If, at the conclusion of the hearing, Judge Burmila decides against calling for a new trial, he plans to head straight for sentencing. During the week that just ended, Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow took steps to avoid having to testify at Peterson's hearing. Glasgow filed court papers claiming that, as a prosecutor, special steps must be taken to force him to testify. He maintains Peterson's attorneys have failed to take those steps. That is just one of many issues to be addressed …
Saturday, February 2, 2013
We could swear we've seen some of these people around here before.
So it's Groundhog Day. This whole week felt like Groundhog Day. Day after day we seemed to be seeing the same people over and over. Maybe our minds were playing tricks on us. Or maybe not. Just look, on Friday we had one of the lawyers representing Drew Peterson in court trying to get former Peterson lawyer Joel Brodsky to give up his financial records. Peterson and Brodsky have been haunting the courthouse for years now. Peterson has been found guilty of murder, and Brodsky no longer represents the convicted wife-killer, but it doesn't look like they've really gone away. And Margarita Hernandez, who faces charges she set up a sex date with a teenage boy, was in court not once, but twice last week. The first time, her trial was scheduled …
Sunday, January 13, 2013
A two-day hearing was set to determine whether wife-killer Drew Peterson will get another murder trial.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Drew Peterson was in court last week trying to get a new trial, and there were a few other people with cases too.
Drew Peterson was brought into a courtroom packed with reporters and had a hearing to set the date for another hearing to see if he can have a do-over of his murder trial. That was the biggest thing going on at the Will County Courthouse last week, but it wasn't the only thing. Let's look at what else was going on in the week that was:
Thursday, January 10, 2013
A two-day hearing was set to determine whether wife-killer Drew Peterson will get another murder trial.
Drew Peterson's murder trial lasted 24 days. Now the wife-killer's looking forward to a two-day hearing to see if he gets to do the whole thing over again. Judge Edward Burmila scheduled the hearing for Feb. 19 and 20. If the judge decides after those two days not give Peterson a new hearing after all, Burmila said he will head straight to sentencing. Peterson, 59, faces up to 60 years in prison for the March 2004 murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio. Prosecutors have subpoenaed Peterson's second wife, Victoria Connolly, and one of his five sons, Eric Peterson, to testify against him at the sentencing hearing. Connolly has said Peterson threatened to kill her and make her death look like an accident. She also told of Drew Peterson …
Saturday, December 22, 2012
The case of a Tinley Park man who allegedly beat his wife to death with a weightlifting bar was just one of the thing's going on at the Will County Courthouse this week.
The Tinley Park man charged with beating his wife to death with a weightlifting bar had his bond set at $5 million. And if Bahaa Sam, 47, comes up with $500,000 cash he needs to secure his release, he must turn in both his American and Egyptian passports, Will County Judge Roger Rickmon ordered at Sam's bond hearing Thursday. Sam allegedly bludgeoned his wife with a weightlifting bar after they argued over his lack of employment. Sam's wife, 38-year-old Nermeen Gamal Sam, had bitten her husband's finger when he blocked her from leaving the house, police said. Sam then murdered his wife in front of their 4-year-old son, police and prosecutors said. But that wasn't the only thing going on at the Joliet courthouse, although it may have been …
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 …
ralph
12:57 pm on Sunday, May 12, 2013
That's the dumb laws in IL. and the barney fife's there,,,, that is why I got the hell out of there, the laws are way different here where I'm ,, a lot __________talk about carrying a gun ,I do 7 days a week because IT IS MY RIGHT TO DO SO if I need it I have it for protection, if you don't you may die and that is because obama turns all the illegals loose here and all over the us for you and i … more ›