Dan Campana – Staff Writer Sycamore- DeKalb County Circuit Judge Douglas Engel acquitted former Genoa Mayor David Rood of unlawful restraint, criminal sexual abuse and battery charges following a bench trial Tuesday. Engel said special prosecutor Gregg Ingemunson was “far short of proving the case” against Rood. Ingemunson relied on testimony from the alleged victim […]
Forty Five Years Later Juror Has Regrets But System Forges On
Burt Constable You live to be 80, you have some regrets. A Mount Prospect octogenarian confesses he has been carrying around one of his regrets for 45 years. It’s a story that’s no less relevant today. “Somewhere around 1963 or ’64, I served on a jury,” he says, his voice soft but strong. “I’m not […]
Fox Valley found innocent of murder charges
Frank Callahan Geneva An Aurora man was freed from jail this week after a Kane County jury found him innocent of murder charges. The jury deliberated about two hours before clearing Joe Willie Conwell, 43, of 466 N. Farnsworth Ave. Conwell had been held in the Kane County Jail since his arrest in February. The […]
Fox Valley man released after alibis check out
Hal Dardick An Aurora man who last week turned himself in on attempted murder charges in a shooting was released after police verified his alibis, his defense attorney said Tuesday. Police and prosecutors confirmed that David Gutierrez Rico, 23, was released Saturday from the Kane County Correctional Center four days after he turned himself in […]
Fox Valley minister is cleared of sex abuse
A prominent Aurora minister has been acquitted of charges he sexually abused three teenage girls last year. The Rev. Paul Goodman, 56, was acquitted late Wednesday by Kane County Judge Donald Hudson after the three teens recanted claims that Goodman fondled them. Goodman operated the Sinners Repentant Church of Jesus Christ in Aurora and hosted […]
Geneva rewrites DUI policy
Revised policy addresses handling of drunken-driving arrests that will “generate news media coverage Eric Schelkopf GENEVA – Geneva Police Department has rewritten its controversial drunken driving policy following claims by an Aurora woman that it violated the U.S. Constitution. Brenda J. Spicer fought a DUI arrest in Geneva, claiming the department’s policy was unconstitutional because […]
Given Gorecki already is the underdog
Greg Rivara Given Barsanti s background, he already was a tough candidate to beat. … He spent 21 years in the Kane County state s attorney s office, and many of those years were in leadership roles It is rare indeed when the political challenger immediately becomes the front-runner. That is exactly what Kane County […]
Goreckis staff going about jobs
Air of uncertainty, nonetheless Gloria Carr ST. CHARLES – The Kane County state’s attorney’s office opened for business as usual Tuesday but with an air of uncertainty over Meg Gorecki’s ability to continue her term. Gorecki declined to make a public statement about an Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission recommendation to suspend her law […]
House parent tied to abuse
Mooseheart staffer charged in assaults on 7 boys at school Dan Rozek Before being hired as a live-in “house parent” at Mooseheart Child City near Batavia, Jonathan D. Scott passed two psychological evaluations, had his background and fingerprints checked and made it through an intensive series of interviews, officials of the residential youth center said […]
In Plea, Attorney Admits Being A Prostitute DEKALB (CBS) – She’s a lawyer — and she was a hooker.
Reema Bajaj, an attorney from the northern Illinois town of Sycamore, near DeKalb, pleaded guilty Wednesday to a misdemeanor prostitution charge, the Sun-Times is reporting. Bajaj — who became something of an Internet sensation after she was initially charged in June 2011 with three counts of prostitution — was sentenced to 24 months of court […]
Involuntary manslaughter
Former Batavia auxiliary cop likely to be released from prison soon Bill Catching Geneva In a disappointing verdict for the county’s top prosecutor, a jury found an Aurora man guilty of involuntary manslaughter in last year’s death of his fiancé’s 4-year-old daughter. “I just came from a mother and father whose child is dead (the […]
Judge blames fight on boys behaving badly
Alicia Fabbre Everyone had a few drinks. Words were exchanged. Then the fighting started.In the end, one man was beaten – nearly to death – and another had been punched in the face. And it all began after one man, the same who was beaten, drove his car into one of the others’. Calling it […]