More potential Degorski jurors dismissed

Several more prospective jurors were dismissed for cause during Wednesday’s jury selection in the trial James Degorski in the Brown’s Chicken and Pasta murders.

Degorski, 36, is charged with first-degree murder in the 1993 slayings at a Palatine fast-food restaurant. Degorski’s co-defendant, Juan Luna, was convicted of the murders in 2007 and sentenced to life in prison.

Defense and prosecution attorneys dismissed one man who said that after he filled out the juror’s questionnaire, he researched the case online, in defiance of Cook County Judge Vincent M. Gaughan’s order not to do. The man responded that he Googled the case because he knew that he would not be able to do so if he were seated as a juror.

Other prospective jurors dismissed for cause included an apartment building manager who said he would always apply the death penalty for a first-degree murder conviction and an attorney who wrote in his juror’s questionnaire that it is “not my place to take someone’s life.”

Earlier Wednesday, Gaughan ordered the media to leave the courtroom for a short time in order to discuss with the attorneys a matter under judicial seal.