Lombard dad jailed for abuse gets new trial

A Lombard father serving a 28-year prison term after a jury convicted him of permanently disabling his infant son has a second chance to try to prove his innocence.

Maurice U. Hall Jr., 32, recently was granted a new trial after successfully arguing police violated his rights when they interviewed him in jail Feb. 14, 2006, without his attorney.

Brett Cummins, a senior DuPage County assistant public defender, raised that argument and others in his Sept. 30, 2008, petition for a new trial. Prosecutors did not fight the alleged Sixth Amendment violation. On Jan. 6, DuPage Circuit Judge Peter J. Dockery granted Hall a new trial.

Hall is accused of impregnating an underage girl, who gave birth to their son at 15. On Feb. 11, 2006, the couple brought the 2-month-old boy, Jeremiah, to Elmhurst Memorial Hospital.

Jeremiah later was transferred to Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

Nearly three years later, the boy is blind, and still cannot walk, talk, roll over, stand or feed himself. He is being raised in a foster home.

Prosecutors argued during the December 2007 trial that the child suffered traumatic injuries when Hall lost his temper and violently shook his son. Hall initially confessed he "just snapped." He later recanted and said he was covering for his girlfriend.

The woman also confessed in a videotaped interview, but she later said Hall persuaded her to take the rap because she was a juvenile and wouldn't be in as much trouble.

To try to explain the defendant's control over the young girl, prosecutors told jurors about a written contract she signed when the couple moved in together in which Hall outlined specific rules, duties and sex acts for her to perform.

The jury believed her over Hall. Members convicted him after two hours of deliberations Dec. 18, 2007, of aggravated battery of a child and aggravated criminal sexual abuse for his relationship with the baby's mother. A judge later sentenced him to serve 28 years in prison.

In arguing for a new trial, Cummins noted a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling barring authorities from interviewing defendants if they have counsel. Lombard police had properly read Hall his rights, but they conducted their second interview with him after a judge that morning in bond court appointed Hall a public defender's representation.

Hall maintains his innocence. In a letter to the judge, Hall last summer suggested the boy's injuries were caused by meningitis, not child abuse. He is being held in the DuPage County jail and is due in court on Thursday.