Neighbor: Rivera's electronic probation monitor broken

Juan Rivera played basketball several blocks from his house on more than one occasion during August 1992, a former neighbor testified Monday.

What's noteworthy about that is Rivera was wearing an electronic transmitter that was supposed to notify authorities if he left his home.

Rivera, 36, is on trial for the third time in Lake County Circuit Court for the Aug. 11, 1992 rape and murder of 11-year-old Waukegan baby sitter Holly Staker. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1993 and 1998, but new trials were ordered after both convictions.

At the time of the killing, Rivera was awaiting sentencing on a burglary conviction and was wearing the transmitter that was supposed to send a signal to a probation officer if he strayed more than 500 feet from a monitor connected to his telephone.

But Anthony Edwards testified he often saw Rivera outside his house wearing the transmitter, and the two played basketball on courts one-quarter mile away from where they lived.

Police say Rivera never mentioned he was in the monitor program until after he had confessed to killing the girl, then told them he routinely slipped out of his parents' apartment without being caught.

The controversy that developed over the reliability of monitor program after the revelations in the first Rivera trial in 1993 ultimately led Lake County officials to abandon it less than a year later.

The defense rested its case Monday, shortly after Rivera told Circuit Judge Christopher Starck he would not take the witness stand to testify on his own behalf. Closing arguments are expected today.

In the more than 16-year history of the case, Rivera has testified twice.

The first time was April 5, 1993, when he testified during a motion to suppress his confession that he had "blacked out" during police questioning and did not remember confessing to the murder. Circuit Judge Charles Scott later found the confession had been legally obtained and could be used against Rivera.

His second testimony was Nov. 20, 1993, when Rivera asked jurors who had convicted him of the murder in his first trial to spare his life. Rivera took the stand in the final phase of the trial, at which the state was seeking the death penalty, and denied killing the girl.

The jury deliberated for about 45 minutes before voting against the death penalty. Because of that decision the state has been barred from seeking capital punishment in the trials that followed.