Carpentersville official's sentencing delayed, again

Sentencing for a Carpentersville trustee found guilty in March of domestic battery was delayed Thursday for the third time, by a request for a new judge.

Patrick Crimmins, defense attorney for Paul Humpfer, 44, entered a motion to disqualify Kane County Judge James Hallock based on the judge's relationship to a former Carpentersville board member and ties to current village president, Bill Sarto.

Crimmins, who took over Humpfer's defense last month, said a motion for retrial is contingent upon the outcome of the reassignment request.

Judge Grant Wegner will consider the request this morning.

Humpfer was convicted in March of domestic battery, accused of hitting his wife in the legs with a baseball bat.

During the two-day bench trial, Hallock disclosed that his brother-in-law Robert Whitehouse is a former Carpentersville board member.

In between the 2005 election in which Humpfer lost his mayoral bid to current President Bill Sarto and the day Sarto took his seat, Whitehouse resigned his post and Humpfer was appointed as his replacement by outgoing President Mark Boettger.

Hallock also attended the same high school as Sarto, though the two were not classmates.

Humpfer's first defense attorney, Van Richards, asked the judge in May to reconsider the verdict based on the ties, but Hallock maintained the Carpentersville connections had "no bearing on the case."

Hallock found Humpfer guilty on four counts of misdemeanor domestic battery stemming from a May 2007 dispute at the couple's Carpentersville home in which Humpfer hit and poked his wife in the legs with an aluminum baseball bat.

During the March bench trial, witnesses for the prosecution described bruises on Jacqueline Humpfer's legs and hip in the days after the May 17 incident.

The defense relied on testimony about a situation involving Trustee Judy Sigwalt's son, Martin, and Jacqueline Humpfer, hoping to mitigate the charges.

The court heard how upset and angry Paul Humpfer was after learning that his wife had sex with Martin Sigwalt - on the night Humpfer and Judy Sigwalt were sworn in for another term in 2007.