Wednesday, February 6, 2013
A Romeoville man's lawsuit claims his girlfriend incited her daughter and three friends to savagely attack him at his home.
A Romeoville man claims his lying lady friend whipped her daughter and three of her pals into such a frenzy that they pulled him out of his home, beat him senseless and cracked his skull with a golf club. The allegedly wronged man, Thomas Lerch, laid out his grievances in a lawsuit filed this week at the Will County Courthouse. Lerch said his girlfriend at the time, Lana Richards, 44, was taken to the Romeoville police station in September after a "domestic altercation" at the Dalhart Avenue home they were sharing. While at the station, Richards called her daughter, Melissa Richards, 25, and "falsely told" her she "had been beaten by Thomas Lerch," the lawsuit said. She also asked for a ride. When the daughter took the call, the lawsuit …
Friday, February 1, 2013
Telephones and computers changed hands in court Friday and Margarita Hernandez's trial next week on sex charges was canceled.
An FBI agent returned the cell phone of a woman charged with setting up a sex romp with a teenage boy, and the woman immediately surrendered the phone to a Joliet police detective during a brief court hearing Friday morning. Also Friday, computers seized from the woman's home on Joliet's far west side were turned over by the police detective. The computers were taken by lawyers defending her against charges she had sex with a 15-year-old from Chicago. The attorneys representing Margarita Hernandez, Steve Landis and Dan Locallo, said they took the computers for safekeeping and that they would be tested by experts to see if Hernandez used them to communicate with the teen. Hernandez, 33, was arrested in October after allegedly orchestrating …
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 13, 2012
The lawyer for a Joliet woman charged with setting up a sex date with a teenage boy in the home she shares with her 76-year-old boyfriend is still waiting on prosecutors to turn over evidence.
Prosecutor have yet to provide the discovery evidence requested by the lawyer for a Joliet woman charged with setting up a sex date with a teenage boy in the home she shares with her 76-year-old boyfriend. The woman, 32-year-old Margarita Hernandez, appeared in court with attorney Steve Landis Thursday morning and was told by Judge Edward Burmila that prosecutors will get another five days to either come up with the evidence that has been asked for else argue why they shouldn't have to. Hernandez was arrested Oct. 4 after an alleged July tryst with a 15-year-old Chicago boy. Hernandez's elderly live-in boyfriend, veteran weekly newspaperman John Gabriel, has claimed his much-younger girlfriend has been framed by the enemies he made over …
Friday, December 7, 2012
The star witness in the Mokena coma punch trial can testify without fear of facing criminal charges.
The judge in the Mokena coma punch case cleared the way for Thursday's bombshell witness to keep testifying without fear of prosecution on perjury or obstructing justice charges. The witness, Steve Raymond of Frankfort, then returned to the witness stand to recall how he told the police "a lot of lies," including how he never saw who threw the fateful punch that put a Joliet man in a coma in July 2009. On Thursday and Friday Raymond changed his story and said it was his friend Mike Glielmi who punched 29-year-old Eric Bartels in the face outside the Mokena bar 191 South. Another of Raymond's friends, Joseph Messina, 24, of New Lenox, was charged with attacking Bartels and spent nearly two months in jail before bonding out. Yet Raymond kept…
Thursday, December 6, 2012
A Joliet man injured when he crashed his car into a bull is blaming the animal's owner.
A Joliet man is suing the owner of a bull for allegedly letting the animal walk out on a Kendall County road and into the path of his Toyota. The lawsuit filed on behalf of Joliet resident Ghulam D. Butt claims that after running head-on into the bull Butt crashed into a ditch and was injured. Butt's son directed questions about the crash and lawsuit to his attorney. But the lawyer who filed the lawsuit, Mark T. Schneid of Naperville, failed to return calls for comment. According to the lawsuit, Butt was heading south on Ridge Road in Na-Au-Say township on Aug. 30 when a "bull animal walked into the roadway directly in front of (his) vehicle causing a severe frontal impact to (his) vehicle and causing (Butt) to lose control and crash into …
The attorneys for the woman charged setting up a sex date with a teenage boy want the police and FBI to turn over the evidence against her.
Lawyers for the Joliet woman charged with setting up a sex date with a teenage boy in the house she shares with her septuagenarian boyfriend want the cops and FBI to hand over whatever it is they got on her. "We've received the state's initial response, it's our opinion it's incomplete," said Steve Landis, one of two attorneys defending Margarita Hernandez against charges she orchestrated a sex romp with a 15-year-old Chicago boy. Landis and attorney Daniel Locallo filed a motion asking for discovery from the Joliet and Chicago police departments, as well as from the FBI. Hernandez, 32, was arrested in October. She and her live-in boyfriend, 76-year-old veteran weekly newspaperman John Gabriel, are both precinct committeemen for the Troy …
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
The trial of a New Lenox man charged with punching a Joliet man into a coma more than three years ago was back in court Wednesday.
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. 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 going down guilty, the Messina case is back on. Messina, who is free on a $250,000 bond, allegedly knocked 29-year-…
Thursday, November 29, 2012
The Cooperstown catcher's drunken driving case was postponed again.
It's been a month and a week since baseball immortal Carlton Fisk was allegedly found passed out behind the wheel of his pickup in a New Lenox cornfield, but the former Red and White Sox star has yet to make it into a Joliet courtroom. Fisk was scheduled for a hearing Thursday morning but his drunken driving case postponed until Dec. 17. Fisk's lawyer, Stephen White, is fighting to get his superstar client's driver's license back and to have evidence ejected from the case. Fisk, 64, lost his license when he allegedly refused to take a breathalyzer test during his arrest Oct. 22 on charges of driving under the influence, improper lane usage and illegal transportation of alcohol. White has also filed a motion claiming the New Lenox police …
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Drew Peterson defense attorney Joseph "Shark" Lopez called blaming him and his co-counsel for helping send quadruple-killer Christopher Vaughn to prison "desperate."
Christopher Vaughn was staring at a life sentence for executing his entire family unless his lawyer somehow got him a new trial. The lawyer, George Lenard, tried to pull that off by pointing to the boorish behavior exhibited by the attorneys for wife-killer Drew Peterson and claiming it kept his client from getting a fair shake from the jury. Vaughn and Peterson's murder trials overlapped and were conducted in adjacent courtrooms on the fourth floor of the Will County Courthouse. Lenard came and went to the trial without addressing the media while Peterson's attorneys conducted press conferences throughout the day. Lenard recalled one press session and told how three of Peterson's attorneys—Joel Brodsky, Joseph "Shark" Lopez and Steve …
SylvanGoddess
7:59 am on Thursday, February 14, 2013
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