Videotape confession out in teacher's murder case

The hours Diana Thames spent with police after her friend was fatally stabbed in 2005 were caught on video -- one of the first tests of a new law requiring such taping.

This week, Thames' eventual confession to the Palatine murder was tossed out by a judge -- a rare move her attorney said was prompted by the existence of that video.

Attorney Kathleen Zellner had argued that her client's requests for an attorney were repeatedly denied by police during her questioning. The video, she said Tuesday, had clearly illustrated her point.

"It's clear that when things are videotaped, judges can make much more enlightened rulings," Zellner said, adding Thames' tape, which ran from about 9 a.m. Aug. 12 2005, to about noon on Aug. 13, let Cook County Judge John Scotillo "accurately access exactly what was said."

Prosecutors had argued the police officers clearly spelled out Thames' right to a lawyer and honored that right.

Scotillo in the end tossed out all parts of Thames' taped statement after she invoked her right to an attorney, officials with the state's attorney's office said. That means most of the video was thrown out, Zellner said, saying only about 10 pages of the roughly 250-page transcript remain.

Scotillo denied a motion to overturn Thames' arrest.

Thames is charged in the murder of Cindy Wolosick, a 46-year-old teacher in Palatine Township Elementary District 15. Wolosick was found dead in her bed inside her Palatine condominium.

Prosecutors allege Thames, who had spent the night at Wolosick's home, stabbed her with a kitchen knife after an argument over the finances of their jointly owned home rehab business in August 2005.

An Illinois law that kicked in a month earlier required all interrogations of murder suspects to be videotaped.

Thames is being held on $3 million bond; her trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 24.