Friday, May 17, 2013
But the alleged mob still faces criminal charges.
A Romeoville woman charged with leading her daughter and three pals on a vicious rampage against her boyfriend walked out of court a free woman Friday—and left the other four behind to face the music. Lana Richards, 45, had been up on charges of aggravated battery and criminal trespass to a residence before prosecutors dismissed the case. Richards' daughter, 25-year-old Melissa Richards, and three men—Kurt Hodges, 27, Gregory Kijek, 26, and Johnathan Bolisenga, 29—were arrested along with her in connection with a brutal attack on Lana Richards' former boyfriend, Thomas Lerch. A "domestic altercation" between Lana Richards and Lerch at the Dalhart Avenue home they were sharing preceded the alleged September attack, according to a lawsuit …
Monday, April 29, 2013
Accused of stealing a client's money, one of Drew Peterson's attorneys agreed to a three-month suspension of his law license, the Chicago Tribune reported.
A member of convicted wife-killer Drew Peterson's defense team took a three-month license suspension to settle a disciplinary case brought against him, the Chicago Tribune reported. Clarendon Hills attorney David Peilet agreed to the suspension, according to the Tribune. Peilet did not join Peterson's defense team until after the disgraced former Bolingbrook cop was found guilty of murdering his third wife, Kathleen Savio, in September. Peilet was part of a failed effort to win a new trial for Peterson. According to the Tribune story, Peilet was accused of stealing $4,000 from a client he represented in a Cook County drug case. A complaint was filed against him with the Illinois Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission. "The ARDC …
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Jason Chance already did time in prison for threatening Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow but was found unfit to answer new allegations of harassing officials.
A downstate man already convicted of threatening Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow on Facebook was found unfit to face new charges of menacing public officials. Jason Chance, 40, was returned to jail after a Monday morning court hearing but will be transferred to a facility run by the Illinois Department of Human Services. Chance has already taken a two-year prison sentence for making threats against Glasgow in 2010. According to a criminal complaint, Chance made a Facebook post "containing a threat to rape and kill James Glasgow." Chance was also charged with "cyberstalking" Glasgow. On top of the prison sentence, Chance was also hit with 30 months of probation with special conditions. Chance allegedly violated that probation by …
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.
Friday, April 19, 2013
A man's lawsuit against a Romeoville woman claims her daughter shot him in the eye with a pellet gun.
A lawsuit filed in Will County court this week claims a Romeoville woman's daughter shot him in the eye with a pellet gun. The extent of the injuries allegedly suffered by Joseph Szymanski were not mentioned in the lawsuit. Szymanski was visiting Michelle Schneider and her "four minor children" at their Romeoville home in late March, the lawsuit said. Szymanski was "sitting on a chair and conversing with" Schneider when one of her "minor daughters approached him while she was holding the 'airsoft' toy pistol," the suit said. The "toy" gun belonged to Schneider, according to the suit, and while the daughter was holding it, "a pellet from the pistol discharged into" Szymanski's eye. Airsoft guns fire small plastic pellets. The lawsuit did …
Former Plainfield North High School gym teacher Ashley Blumenshine apologized as she was sentenced to 11 days in jail and 10 years on the state's sex offender registry.
A tearful Ashley Blumenshine choked out an apology between sobs after pleading guilty to having sex with a teenage student from the high school where she was a teacher. "I will forever be humbled and remorseful for my actions," Blumenshine, a former Plainfield North gym teacher, said before she was handcuffed and led away to the Will County jail Friday morning to serve 11 days behind bars. The actual sentence was 30 days but it was halved by day-for-day credit. Blumenshine already served four of the remaining 15 days before she was released on bond. In addition to the time in jail, Blumenshine, 30, was put on sex offender probation for two years and will be placed on the Illinois sex offender registry for 10 years. Blumenshine faced much …
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
A New Lenox resident is being held on a 35-year-old murder charge in connection with a Joliet case, but police and prosecutors are trying to figure out if he's the right guy.
A New Lenox man is being held at the Will County jail in connection with a 1978 Joliet murder, but police and prosecutors are still trying to determine whether they have their man. Pedro Hernandez was taken into custody by the New Lenox police following a March 14 crash. He was charged with driving under the influence, and when officers ran his name and identifiers, discovered someone matching his description was wanted on a warrant charging him with a 35-year-old Joliet murder. The Pedro Hernandez wanted for stabbing a man in the chest on April 2, 1978, is 66. The Pedro Hernandez arrested after the crash claims to be 67. The criminal complaint on file at the Will County Courthouse identifies the victim as Julian Bresino. The Crime …
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 …
A defense attorney in the Nightmare on Hickory Street double murder wanted a special prosecuctor appointed and a hearing convened to ferret out a leak, but for now he won't get either one of those things.
A series of stories about the Nightmare on Hickory Street double murder published exclusively by Patch revealed so many disturbing details that a defense attorney wants a special prosecutor appointed and a special hearing held to "determine who the culprit is here." But defense lawyer Chuck Bretz is getting neither of those things—at least for now. Will County Judge Gerald Kinney said Wednesday that he may revisit the issue of a special evidentiary hearing but that he isn't going to order one yet. Bretz and the other attorneys representing two young men and two young women charged with brutal murders of Terrance Rankins and Eric Glover, both 22, backed off on their request for a special prosecutor. The defense attorneys for Adam Landerman…
Billy Leon
11:22 am on Sunday, May 19, 2013
You just got to love it when a mother and daughter bond. Can't wait for part II when "Mommy and Baby" leave the trailer park and knock off a liquor store. And what's with the plea deals? They assaulted this man at his home....and why....oh yeah "cause he broke momma's heart." I guess that justifies a brutal assaul, theft, and vandalism. Business as usual at Will County Courthouse. more ›