Second trial looms for ex-cop after High Court refuses to hear appeal

A former cop sent to prison for his role in an off-duty bar brawl may be heading to a second trial sometime next year after the Illinois Supreme Court refused to consider his case.

McHenry County State's Attorney Louis Bianchi said Friday his office likely will retry Brian Quilici in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling, which effectively upheld the lower-court decision overturning the onetime police officer's 2006 conviction.

"We will take another look at the (appellate court) opinion and re-evaluate the case first," Bianchi added.

Quilici, at the time an officer in the northern McHenry County town of Richmond, was found guilty of aggravated battery, mob action and official misconduct in connection with a February 2005 altercation outside KC's Cabin in Fox Lake.

Prosecution witnesses testified Quilici, along with two other former law enforcement officers, handcuffed and viciously beat a man in the bar's parking lot after a verbal dispute spilled outside.

The former officers said they acted in self-defense after the man pulled a knife on them and attacked a female companion.

A state appeals court overturned the verdict in June, ruling that trial Judge Sharon Prather improperly instructed jurors when she told them Quilici did not have arrest powers at the time of the altercation because he was off duty.

Quilici attorney Vincent Solano said his client welcomes the opportunity to prove his innocence, but would be willing to plead guilty to a significantly reduced charge to avoid another lengthy and costly trial.

"This case has been going on for too long," he said. "It's time to put this behind us."

If Quilici were retried and found guilty, he could not receive a sentence beyond the two-year prison term he already served.

His co-defendants, former Spring Grove police officers Ronald Pilati and Jerome Volstad, also were found guilty of felony charges after a trial, only to have the convictions thrown out after it was learned prosectors had not given their lawyers a written statement by the other man involved in the fight.

Each later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of attempted unlawful restraint, a deal Solano said Quilici would accept when the case returns to McHenry County court early next year.

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