Man Released From Death Row Slams Sheriff’s Candidate Ken Kaupas

Randy Steidl never met Will County Deputy Chief Ken Kaupas, but the former death row prisoner made $2.5 million in a lawsuit naming him as a defendant. And Steidl, a a once-convicted murderer, is now slamming the man he claims tried to keep him in prison for “politically sensitive” reasons.

“Here he is trying to be a sheriff. He shouldn’t even be a policeman,” said Steidl, 62 and out of prison since 2004.

Steidl and another man were convicted of the July 1986 murders of Paris, IL, couple Dyke and Karen Rhoads. Steidl was condemned to death and had two execution dates pass before he was taken off death row to serve a life sentence.

He and his co-defendant, Herb Whitlock, were released from prison after the case was re-investigated and no physical evidence tied either man to the murders.

Steidl sued Paris police and Illinois State Police personnel assigned to his case, as well as former Edgar County State’s Attorney Mike McFatridge. Kaupas was a captain with the state police when he was put on the murder case more than 10 years after Steidl and Whitlock had been incarcerated.

Steidl accused Kaupas of attempting to have another prisoner try to record him threatening to kill McFatridge. The scheme to record him was carried out the day before he was to be released from prison, Steidl said.

Steidl made a total of $6 million off the case. The state police settled without acknowledging wrongdoing for $2.5 million, according to a story in the Champaign News-Gazette.

“This isn’t about dirty politics, it’s about dirty police work,” Steidl said of Kaupas, whom he accused of working to keep him in prison even after it became apparent there was not enough evidence to substantiate his conviction.

When asked to discuss Steidl’s accusations, Kaupas referred questions to Joliet attorney Frank Cservenyak. Cservenyak told Patch he could set up a “sit-down” interview with Kaupas for “any time.” More than two weeks after he said he would set up such an interview, Cservenyak has yet to do so.

While Kaupas wasn’t talking, his cousin, incumbent Will County Sheriff Paul Kaupas, was.

Paul Kaupas hired Ken Kaupas in late 2010 and then made him deputy chief, augmenting his cousin’s six-figure state police pension with a salary in excess of $100,000.

When asked about Steidl, Paul Kaupas seemed unaware of the man who sued his cousin. Then he recalled the case and said, “He never sued Ken.”

Paul Kaupas, who may have been confused by other lawsuits, went on to say Ken Kaupas was “dismissed” from the lawsuit.

Steidl’s attorney for the lawsuit, G. Flint Taylor, said the lawsuit against Kaupas was in fact dismissed—after the state police agreed to pay Steidl $2.5 million. Taylor said the state police paid about the same to Whitlock.

“So for $5 million, it was dismissed,” Taylor said.

The sheriff also attacked Steidl’s credibility, saying, “He’s a convicted murderer” and that, “They only (dismissed the criminal charges), they didn’t exonerate.”

Steidl said he was “not surprised” to hear the sheriff question his innocence.

“That’s typical of what they’ve done in the past 10 years since I’ve been released,” he said.