Saturday, May 18, 2013
A lawsuit against an imprisoned preacher from Crete and an Indiana megachurch topped the week's court news.
A former megachurch preacher sentenced to 12 years in federal prison in March for carrying on a sexual relationship with a teenage member of his congregation was sued in Will County court. In addition to preacher Jack Schaap, 55, of Crete, the First Baptist Church of Hammond was named as a defendant in the lawsuit. The parents of a teenage girl Schaap had sex with while he was pastor of the First Baptist Church of Hammond filed the lawsuit. The suit identifies the parents as "John Doe and Mary Doe," and the teen as "Jane Doe." The suit gives Jane Doe's date of birth as June 27, 1995. Here's what else was going on at the area's courthouses: Check out all these stories and more on our Facebook page.
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, April 27, 2013
Two men were found unfit to face criminal charges this week.
Not one, but two men were found unfit to face criminal charges this week. For the second time in a month, Mark Lewis, 53, was deemed unfit to stand trial for the murder of his sister, who was found beaten to death in her Naperville home in June 2011. Lewis wants to act as his own attorney if the murder case ever makes it to trial. Also wanting to act as his own attorney—and deemed unfit to face criminal charges—was 40-year-old Jason Chance of downstate Lewiston. Chance already did prison time for menacing Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow through Facebook. According to a criminal complaint, Chance threatened to rape and kill the county's top prosecutor. After his release, Chance allegedly made harassing telephone calls to a judge…
Thursday, April 25, 2013
The Frankfort pediatrician charged with molesting five women in his doctor's office was arraigned on a 16-count indictment.
A Frankfort pediatrician charged with groping five women in his Colorado Avenue office already lost his medical license. Now he can't have a passport either. Dr. Kishor Jain, 59, was ordered to turn in his passport during his arraignment in Will County court Thursday morning. Jain's attorney, Gerald Kielian, said the passport had already been surrendered the the sheriff's department, but Jain would still comply with the order. Special prosecutor Dave Neal, who asked Judge Robert Livas to order Jain to surrender his passport, said he believes Jain is originally from India. Jain faces 10 counts of felony criminal sexual abuse, five counts of misdemeanor battery, and a single count of criminal sexual assault for allegedly groping five women …
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.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
A New Lenox man charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse and indecent solicitation of an adult while he was working at Bremen High School was back in court.
A former Bremen High School basketball coach and substitute teacher charged with groping one teen and trying to set up a three-way with two others appeared in court Thursday and was told to return next month. The attorney for 27-year-old Ross Larson, Tom O'Brien, said during the brief hearing that Larson will waive his right to a jury and leave it to Cook County Judge Luciano Panici to decide his fate at trial. Larson, a New Lenox resident, allegedly developed a relationship with a teenage girl he met at a Bremen High football game in autumn 2010. He and the 17-year-old exchanged Facebook and text messages, and eventually shared naked pictures, police said. In November 2010, Larson kept the teen after class to do some cleaning, according …
Sunday, April 14, 2013
One of the four charged in the Nightmare on Hickory Street double murder case is getting $5,000 from the county for an expert witness.
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Sunday, April 14
Saturday, April 13, 2013
One of the four charged in the Nightmare on Hickory Street double murder case is getting $5,000 from the county for an expert witness.
One of the four young people charged with the brutal Nightmare on Hickory Street double murder case has been represented by no less than three private attorneys since she was arrested, but is now getting $5,000 to hire an expert witness. One of the three lawyers working for 18-year-old Bethany McKee of Shorewood convinced Judge Gerald Kinney that the county should cover the cost of a doctor to observe DNA testing. Prosecutors argued that McKee is being represented by private attorneys, but one of her lawyers, Neil Patel, countered that no one has established that he or his colleagues are actually getting paid. Kinney capped the county's payout at $5,000, and if McKee's lawyers want more money, they will have to appear before him and make …
Monday, April 8, 2013
A Frankfort doctor facing felony sex charges and four civil suits was sued a fifth time.
A Frankfort pediatrician's legal woes continued to mount as a fifth lawsuit was filed against him in Will County court. Dr. Kishor Jain, 59, also faces felony sex charges for allegedly molesting five different women in the Colorado Avenue clinic he worked out of before the sex scandal forced him to part ways with the office. The most recent lawsuit was filed by Brittany Lopez of Joliet. Lopez is one of the women named in the criminal complaint against Jain. Jain fondled Lopez's vagina sometime between September and December, the complaint said. The lawsuit said both Lopez and her daughter were patients of Jain and that she sought treatment from him after she was injured in a September car accident. During an examination, the suit said, …
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.
Fester Bestertester
4:22 pm on Monday, May 20, 2013
Drunkenly driving and drunkenly lying on the street. huh. more ›