No special prosecutor for man charged with perjury

A former Lake County man accused of lying during the murder trial of a friend last year failed Thursday to persuade a judge to bar the McHenry County State's Attorney's Office from prosecuting his case.

McHenry County Judge Joseph Condon denied Justin Houghtaling's request he appoint a special prosecutor to try him on five perjury charges that could land him a 10-year prison sentence.

The charges allege Houghtaling, 27, formerly of Round Lake, made numerous false statements while testifying in the August murder trial of Kenneth Smith. Among the suspected lies: prosecutors were forcing him to lie about Smith and that a former prosecutor who now is a judge offered him $3,000 to falsely implicate Smith.

Despite Houghtaling's testimony, Smith, 32, of Park City, was convicted of first-degree murder for the 2001 slaying of Lakemoor businessman Raul Briseno during a botched robbery and is now serving a 67-year prison term.

Houghtaling himself is serving a 20-year sentence for the same murder, having pleaded guilty in 2001 to allegations he was Smith's accomplice in the failed holdup of Briseno's McHenry restaurant.

Central to Houghtaling's bid to have the state's attorney removed was that his attorney in 2001, Thomas Carroll, now is a supervisor in the prosecutor's office and could be a witness in the perjury case.

"In the interest of justice I don't see how the office can continue to prosecute this case when (Carroll) was at the time the second most important person in the office," Houghtaling attorney Matthew Haiduk said.

Condon, however, said it's not at all clear at this point how Carroll's work more than seven years ago makes him a witness to the current perjury charges.

"Simply naming him as a witness (now) doesn't make him a witness," the judge said.