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Sayad's trespassing conviction stands

After hours of testimony Thursday, a judge upheld his previous ruling that Des Plaines Alderman Dick Sayad is guilty of misdemeanor criminal trespassing for walking into a resident's house unannounced last year.

Following a four-hour appeal hearing at the Skokie courthouse and months of litigation, Sayad said he won't consider taking the case to the appellate court.

"I'm done," said the alderman, who has represented Des Plaines' 4th Ward for 12 years.

Last June, Cook County Judge Michael Hood found Sayad guilty for walking into a house on the 400 block of Harvey Avenue in February to discuss complaints Sayad received for an unshoveled sidewalk. He said he walked up a flight of stairs to what he believed was a second-floor apartment.

Sayad's attorney at the time, James Tatooles, recommended Sayad not appeal.

But just before a 30-day deadline in July, Sayad's new attorneys, Dean and Laura Morask, filed a motion to have the verdict overturned.

In court Thursday, the Morasks argued for a new trial because of "ineffective assistance of counsel" - that Tatooles should have cross-examined resident Dave Uhrich about a police report in which he told officers he "invited" Sayad inside his second-floor music studio after Sayad walked upstairs through an outside door. And they say the officers who wrote the report should have been questioned.

The Morasks also say Tatooles should have called character witnesses, including Des Plaines Community Foundation Executive Director Rosemary Argus, who would have testified that she was arranging to have volunteer students shovel the walk.

Sayad's attorneys believe the additional testimony would have showed the alderman didn't have any criminal intent.

But the judge said he didn't find Sayad's former attorney's performance in the first trial to be deficient.

"Sometimes it's easy to Monday morning quarterback. We do it because it's easy to do," Hood said. "But not in this case, because the law is specific."

"I don't think (Sayad) got in his car and said, 'I'm going to commit a crime.' But intent can be formed in a split second. ... There's no getting around that he walked into that two-story colonial in Des Plaines."

During testimony Thursday, Des Plaines police Cmdr. Scott Moreth said Uhrich never used the word "invited" - but that word was used in the police report without quotation marks as part of a summary of a lengthy discussion police had with Uhrich.

Tatooles, Sayad's former attorney, also took the stand after being subpoenaed by the state attorney's office. Under cross-examination by Dean Morask, Tatooles said Uhrich didn't directly answer his question about whether Sayad was "invited" in.

Tatooles said he didn't question the officers because they didn't say anything detrimental about his client. And he didn't call character witnesses because it "wasn't going to fly with the judge."

Hood on Thursday declined to consider a request by Sayad's new attorneys to reduce his sentence of 18 months of supervision. He has already served six months, and the judge indicated he may take up the request at the 12-month mark. Sayad has already paid $1,369 in fines, court costs and fees.

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