No venue change for Cary truck driver
A politically-charged case with links to an embattled judge and clout-carrying township official is staying put in McHenry County, despite efforts move it away because of what newspaper readers have had to say about it.
Judge Michael Feetterer rejected David W. Miller's request to move his pending trial for felony obstructing justice and a host of traffic offenses. Miller's defense, in court documents seeking the change of venue, said the unusual amount of media attention garnered by the case over the past 11 months will make it difficult for him to get a fair trial.
That attention has very little to do with Miller, a 51-year-old truck driver from Cary accused in July 2007 of fleeing from a traffic stop to prevent police from weighing his vehicle.
Instead it stems from what happened after his arrest: namely claims that his politically connected brother, Algonquin Township Highway Commissioner Bob Miller, got his friend and ally Judge Michael Chmiel to hold a special bond hearing on his brother's behalf.
That bond hearing kept David Miller from spending a weekend in the McHenry County jail.
But it's also landed Chmiel in hot water with state authorities, who earlier this year filed a formal complaint that could lead to the judge's reprimand, suspension or removal from office.
In all, according to Miller's defense, the case has been the subject of 17 local news articles which, in some instances, have detailed the charges against him.
But more than those, the defense makes the case that Miller's chances for a fair trial in McHenry County may have been more negatively affected by comments left by readers at the end of those stories.
"These 'blogs' contain a number of entries, reasonably presumed to have been made by McHenry County residents, which demonstrate prejudice against the defendant," Miller attorney, Rebecca Miller, said in a motion asking to move the case.
County prosecutors, however, said the defense is jumping the gun by claiming prejudice now. They argued last week that no decision should be made until jury selection begins.
"The logical means by which to ascertain whether jurors have been actually prejudiced by pretrial publicity is to ask them," Assistant McHenry County State's Attorney Ryan Blackney said in response to Miller's request.
Feetterer agreed and denied Miller's request for a change of venue. Miller now is scheduled to return to court July 25 for a hearing on his motion to dismiss the felony charge against him.
In the meantime, an official with the Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board said recently there are no hearings scheduled yet in regards to the complaint against Chmiel.
Trial delayed, again: Just weeks before its scheduled start, a McHenry County judge last week agreed to postpone for a second time the trial of a Lake Villa woman accused of driving drunk and causing a crash that claimed the life of a 22-year-old man.
Over the objection of McHenry County prosecutors, Judge Joseph Condon reset the trial for Nicole Cerk, 31, from its scheduled July 14 start date to Oct. 20 in order to give her time to hire expert witnesses in toxicology and accident reconstruction.
"Considering what's at stake for the defendant, she's going to get the opportunity to get ready what she needs to get ready," Condon said.
What's at stake is a possible 14-year prison sentence if Cerk is found guilty of an aggravated driving under the influence charge alleging she was drunk when she failed to yield her SUV at the intersection of Fox Lake Road and Broadway Road in Pistakee Highlands and collided with a car driven by Curtiss Phelan, 22. Phelan died as a result of injuries suffered in the collision.