Ex-cops denied new trial on charges they beat man
Rejecting claims that authorities tampered with evidence, a judge Monday denied a new trial for a pair of former McHenry County police officers convicted of beating a handcuffed man during an off-duty bar fight three years ago.
Judge Joseph Condon also refused to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the defense allegations, leaving ex-Spring Grove police officers Ronald L. Pilati and Jerome Volstad facing up to five years in prison when they are sentenced later this week for aggravated battery, unlawful restraint, mob action and obstructing justice.
Lawyers for the defendants, who accused prosecutors and police of editing recordings of 911 calls made during the February 2005 altercation, said they will appeal the decision.
"I'm not going to rest until we get to the bottom of this," Pilati attorney Thomas Loizzo said.
Volstad, 43, of Cary, and Pilati, 36, of Spring Grove, were found guilty in November of charges stemming from an early-morning fracas outside KC's Cabin in Fox Lake.
Authorities accused them, along with a third now-former police officer, of attacking Wisconsin resident Ryan Hallett in the bar's parking lot, putting him in handcuffs and repeatedly punching and kicking him.
The ex-officers denied doing anything wrong, saying they acted only after Hallett pulled a knife on them and took hostage a woman who tried to play peacemaker.
In their motion for a new trial, defense lawyers said a portion of the 911 recordings played for jurors omitted the sound of the former officers repeatedly telling Hallett he was under arrest during the incident and Hallett responding with an expletive.
"It corroborates what Pilati and Volstad say (happened) out there," Volstad lawyer Alfred Stavros said. "If the jury heard all the evidence, there would have been a different verdict."
But in an 11-page written ruling issued Monday morning, Condon said jurors already heard evidence of that exchange through testimony by Volstad, Pilati and Hallett.
"The recorded shouts of 'You're under arrest' are merely repetitive of the defendants' testimony on the topic," the judge wrote. "The shouts are not impeaching of Ryan Hallett because Mr. Hallett did not contradict defendants on the topic."
Condon dismissed defense claims that prosecutors attempted to hide the portion of the recordings from them, writing that all recordings were in the defense's hands at least two months before the trial and if there was a discrepancy they could have recognized it then.
The judge also noted that at no point during or since the trial have Pilati or Volstad specified any words that had been erased from or added to the recordings.
Both men face punishment ranging from probation to five years in prison when sentenced Thursday afternoon.
The third ex-officer charged in the incident, Brian Quilici formerly with the Richmond Police Department, was sentenced to two years in prison for his involvement.