Defense questions statements in molestation case

The attorney for a former Lake Zurich day-care center operator accused of molesting a young girl attacked a key part of the prosecution's case Wednesday.

Michael Feeney, 59, is charged with predatory sexual assault of a child. Authorities say he molested the girl, now 7, at the Kids Kare center he ran with his wife.

During his opening statement Tuesday, Lake County Assistant State's Attorney Bolling Haxall told the jury that Feeney mentioned the girl by name when being questioned by police.

Haxall told the seven men and five women on the jury that the name of the girl came out of Feeney's mouth before the police had mentioned the name or the gender of the child who had claimed to have been molested.

Haxall clearly wanted the statement to look like an admission on Feeney's part, but Arlington Heights attorney Donald Cosley tried to show Wednesday the statement was less than remarkable.

During his cross-examination of Lake Zurich police Detective Robert Johnson, who conducted the Dec. 6, 2006, interview with Feeney, Cosley pointed to a way Feeney could have been told the girl's name prior to meeting with police.

Johnson recalled that an investigator from the state Department of Children and Family Services had been made aware of the case on Dec. 2.

In the time between DCFS' initial involvement in the case and the police interview, Johnson said, he knew the investigator had called Feeney at home at least once and had visited the residence at 25 Mohawk Trail.

Johnson replied "yes" when Cosley asked him, "So it is possible that Mr. Feeney could have learned the girl's name from the DCFS investigator?"

Feeney is charged with molesting the girl repeatedly between January 2005 and June 2006, when her mother took her out of the center where Feeney and his wife cared for as many as eight children at a time.

If convicted in the case, Feeney faces a mandatory prison sentence of between six and 30 years.

Testimony is expected to continue today.