Cops: McHenry Co. man beat neighbor with iron

A McHenry County man is in critical condition with injuries suffered when a neighbor beat him over the head Saturday with a clothing iron, police said Tuesday.

The neighbor, Bernard Nicholl, of the 4900 block of Wonder Lake Drive, in Wonder Lake, is in custody at the county jail facing an aggravated battery charge stemming from the incident.

Multiple sources reported earlier Tuesday that the victim had died from his injuries, but authorities later corrected those reports.

According to a criminal complaint filed Monday, Nicholl "did strike Miroslaw Czerchlanski on the head at least one time with an object described as an iron, causing grave bodily damage and injury to Czerchlanski."

Czerchlanski, 48, was in the intensive-care unit at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge with multiple skull fractures, Wonder Lake Police Chief David Mahlke said.

Mahlke said the case remains under investigation, but there are no other suspects in the beating. Police had been called to prior incidents involving the two men, he added.

Nicholl is unemployed and owns no real estate or significant personal property, according to an affidavit he filed Monday to obtain a public defender.

Court records show he has a lengthy criminal history in McHenry County and has been sentenced to prison at least three times for terms ranging from 24 to 30 months.

Since 1989, records show, 38 felony, misdemeanor and traffic cases have been brought against Nicholl on charges that include battery, aggravated assault, forgery, obstructing justice and criminal damage to government property. His most recent prison stay came in 2003 when he was sentenced to 30 months in the Illinois Department of Corrections for his third DUI conviction.

In 2006, Nicholl's sister and brother-in-law obtained an order of protection against him, stating in a court petition that he had been threatening them and damaged their home.

"He is extremely volatile and dangerous," the petition says.

Nicholl remains in custody at the county jail on a $100,000 bond set Monday. He is due in court May 19 on the aggravated battery charge, a felony punishable by two to five years in prison.