Judge disqualifies defense lawyer from underage drinking case

Saying it is necessary to preserve prosecutors' right to a fair trial, a McHenry County judge Thursday disqualified a prominent law firm from representing a McHenry woman accused of providing beer to a teenage friend who later suffered fatal injuries driving home drunk.

Judge Charles Weech ruled Mark Gummerson, the lawyer for defendant Jenna Christopherson, gained an unfair edge on prosecutors when his law firm represented two key witnesses in a co-defendant's trial.

"Attorney Gummerson certainly gained an advantage in this case that he may not have had if his firm had not represented (the witnesses)," Weech said. "The state's right to a fair trial is jeopardized."

The ruling leaves Christopherson, 21, searching for a new lawyer more than three years after she hired Gummerson to defend her against a misdemeanor charge of unlawful delivery of alcohol to a minor.

The charge alleges that Christopherson, then 17 years old, threw a St. Patrick's Day 2005 party at which Jamie Lyn Smith, also 17, drank beer.

Smith later crashed her car while driving home to Hebron, suffering injuries that led to her death about eight months later.

In 2007 Gummerson's firm represented two witnesses who testified under an immunity deal against Edward Jungmann, a McHenry man ultimately convicted of buying beer for Christopherson's party. He later was sentenced to three months in jail and a year of probation.

Weech on Thursday gave Christopherson three weeks to either hire another lawyer or ask for the public defender to represent her.