Prosecutors seek gag order in 2002 murder case

Unhappy about comments they read in the newspaper last week, McHenry County prosecutors are asking a court to impose a gag order on the defense for a McHenry man charged with murder in the 2002 disappearance of a teenager.

Court documents filed Tuesday accuse Brian Telander, defense lawyer for murder suspect Mario Casciaro, of violating Illinois Supreme Court rules in statements to the press Friday that questioned the quality of evidence and credibility of witnesses against his client.

"The statements pose a serious and imminent threat to the fairness of the adjudicative proceedings," Assistant McHenry County State's Attorney Michael Combs states in the documents.

The prosecution motion asks Judge Sharon Prather to bar Telander from making any more out-of-court statements that would threaten the fairness of the legal proceedings. A hearing on the request is scheduled for April 29.

Telander could not be reached immediately for comment Tuesday.

Casciaro, 26, of the 2700 block of North Patricia Lane, faces five counts of first-degree murder and one count of concealment of a homicidal death in the slaying of 17-year-old Brian Carrick.

Carrick vanished Dec. 20, 2002, from Val's Foods, a grocery store near his Johnsburg home. Casciaro, who now owns a Val's Foods in Fox Lake, was his supervisor at the time. Traces of Carrick's blood were found in the store, but there has been no other sign of him since.

The charges allege Casciaro, or someone for whom he was legally responsible, struck Carrick in the head during an act of intimidation and unlawful restraint, causing his death. Casciaro, who is being held in the county jail on $5 million bond, has pleaded not guilty.