Lichtman estate has seen legal action before

The 1996 murders of Marvin and Kay Lichtman spilled into the legal arena long before the criminal trial set to begin today in Lake County Circuit Court.

A battle began over control of the victim's charitable foundation, which received the bulk of the couple's estimated $14 million estate, and three small-time thieves bought themselves more trouble than they could have been looking for with the attempted sale of looted merchandise.

In 1997, the year following the slaying of the childless couple, Shelia Higgason, Kay Lichtmans' niece, sued the foundation, claiming she had been illegally removed from the board by June Hood, a Miami financial consultant who claimed the Lichtmans had left her in charge.

Also entering the fray was the Illinois attorney general's office, which claimed neither had been legally appointed to the board. It asked a Cook County judge to name an independent board to control the money.

After considerable acrimony between the two sides, Circuit Judge John K. Madden engineered a Solomon-like compromise in which both Higgason and Hood remained on the board, which he filled out with three retired judges.

The foundation remains in existence today, with assets of close to $9 million and a record of support for such causes as the Art Institute of Chicago, Evanston Northwestern Health Care Research Institute, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and the University of Miami, among others.

Also, in October 1997, three men were charged with stealing a vase and a statue from the ruins of the Lichtman home.

The three -- one from Lake Villa and two from Chicago --were charged with theft. Police alleged one of them took the items while working for a salvage company, and the other two had attempted to sell them.

Police quickly determined the three men had nothing to do with the Lichtman murders, and all three were placed on probation after pleading guilty.