Convicted ex-cops' attorney says evidence tampered with
Lawyers for two former police officers convicted of beating a man during an off-duty altercation are asking a McHenry County judge to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate allegations authorities tampered with evidence.
The request comes a month after a jury found Ronald L. Pilati and Jerome Volstad guilty of aggravated battery, unlawful restraint, mob action and obstructing justice charges stemming from an off-duty altercation outside a Fox Lake tavern in February 2005.
Pilati, 36, of Spring Grove, was at the time a patrol officer for the Spring Grove Police Department. Volstad, 42, of Cary, had been an officer in Lincolnshire and Spring Grove, but had not been working because of a back injury.
Both men face up to five years in prison when sentenced.
Attorneys for each filed court papers this week seeking a new trial and claiming authorities tampered with recordings of 911 calls made by the defendants during the altercation. The tampering, Volstad attorney Al Stavros said, may have eliminated portions of the recording that could exonerate his client.
"There is clear evidence that someone has intentionally tampered with or destroyed exculpatory evidence in this case," Stavros says in his request for a special prosecutor.
The defense request includes an affidavit from an audio-video professional that states two discrepancies between an original version of the recordings and one the defense says it got before trial only could have been caused by editing of the original.
The case's chief prosecutor, Nichole Owens, disputed those claims Friday, saying defense lawyers received complete copies of the recordings.
"The judge reviewed both recordings and determined that they were identical," said Owens, criminal chief for the McHenry County state's attorney. "Their whole claim is nothing but a red herring."
In their requests for a new trial, defense lawyers say the tampering allegations are part of a long line of prosecutorial misconduct that made it impossible for Volstad and Pilati to receive fair trials. Other instances, they claim, include giving a witness a script before her grand jury testimony, allowing investigators to intimidate witnesses and misleading jurors about the extent of the victim's injuries.
"(The misconduct) is pervasive, demonstrating such a complete disregard for the defendants' constitutional rights to due process that the integrity of these judicial proceedings has been so seriously undermined such that a new trial must now be granted," Stavros says in his new trial request.
The charges against the officers alleged they, along with former Richmond cop Brian Quilici, handcuffed and viciously beat a man in the bar's parking lot after an earlier verbal confrontation inside the business. Quilici, 36, recently completed a two-year prison term for his convictions stemming from the incident.