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Crime & Safety

Court Watch: Evidence in Hand Against Man Accused of Punching and Choking a Girl

And the Tinley Park Park District board president accused of theft has a trial date set for next year. A roundup of the week's courthouse action.

Major criminal and civil cases from the Southland heard in Cook County and Will County courts this week.

Cook County

OAK FOREST—Nicholas Sord of Orland Park is scheduled back in court on Dec. 15 to continue pretrial hearings. He was charged with aggravated driving under the influence and reckless homicide relating to the death of New Lenox resident Jessica Mejia on New Year’s Eve 2009 near 147th Street and Oak Park Avenue. The Mejia family has since filed a lawsuit against the Cook County Sheriff’s Department alleging that deputies took nude photos of Mejia while investigating the accident.

OAK LAWN—Prosecutors have finished gathering and exchanging evidence in the case of Michael T. Kelly, a former Village of Oak Lawn employee accused of beating and choking a teenage girl. Kelly has pled not guilty to the charges and is being defended by former Village of Oak Lawn Trustee Edward Barron, who denied comment on the case Wednesday. They’re scheduled back in court on Dec. 20.

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Will County

TINLEY PARK—Trial for the Tinley Park Park District board president charged with theft of money has been set for Feb. 21, 2012. In court on Monday, a Will County assistant state’s attorney said the state would consider making Brian H. Younker an offer if he pays back the $3,400 he's accused of stealing from his ex-wife in May. Younker waived his right to a jury trial in the event his case hasn’t been settled by then.

On the Docket Next Week

TUESDAY

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Steven Dutton, who’s accused of trying to lure a teenage girl into his pornographic, sex toy-laden truck, is scheduled back in Cook County court. Last month he filed a jury waiver, meaning a settlement or verdict is within sight on his charge of disorderly conduct.

Lauren Papiez, 20, and her carnival-employed boyfriend have been charged with indecent solicitation of a child. The couple are accused of sending sexually explicit photographs and text messages to an Oak Lawn teenager. Papiez and her boyfriend have been given different hearing dates but both face up to seven years in prison. She is scheduled in Cook County court Tuesday.

THURSDAY

Cook County Judge John J. Hynes will decide whether to shield all documents pertaining to the Alan Kustok murder investigation from public eyes. More than one year after the death of Kustok’s wife, prosecutors say Orland Park police have not finished some of their reports. Legal attempts by news media to obtain finished reports have been unsuccessful so far.

FRIDAY

Rodney Julun is accused of murdering a New Lenox Township man and robbing his home and property over the course of several days, with accomplices, while the man’s body decayed. Julun remains in prison on a $5 million bail.

Accused residential burglars Ira Cunningham and William Jenkins will return to Will County court after a judge set bail at $200,000 a piece last month. A search for the men forced a lockdown at Chelsea Elementary School and St. Anthony’s Catholic School and through various Frankfort neighborhoods on Oct. 27.

David Baitman, a former attorney for the Village of Oak Forest responsible for local court hearings, will be back in Cook County court. He's accused of gagging, blind-folding and sexually assaulting a woman.

 

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