Old Dugan written confession surfaces
Nearly 24 years ago, Brian Dugan penned a four-page confession in which he admitted abducting, raping and killing Jeanine Nicarico of Naperville.
His lawyers argue he wrote it to "right a wrong," as two other men by then were condemned to die for the 10-year-old girl's Feb. 25, 1983, murder.
The little-known handwritten confession surfaced Thursday in court when his lawyers gave copies to the judge and prosecutors in an attempt to save Dugan's life.
Two weeks ago, Dugan pleaded guilty to killing Jeanine after he abducted the dimpled, brown-eyed girl from her home. Prosecutors will ask a DuPage County jury this fall to sentence him to death, but his defense team plans to argue that the fact he accepted responsibility and showed remorse, through his guilty plea, as well as his attempt decades ago to clear the other wrongly accused men, means he deserves only a life term.
Dugan, 52, has been serving two life prison terms since his Nov. 19, 1985, plea for two later murders and a series of unrelated sex attacks. It was during those plea talks that Dugan first offered to admit guilt in Jeanine's death, but only if prosecutors took the death penalty off the table. At the time, though, authorities didn't believe Dugan killed Jeanine.
Defense attorney Steven Greenberg said Thursday Dugan wrote the detailed confession Nov. 1, 1985, and instructed his lawyers to keep it in a safe place "should anything ever happen to him." The confession, long kept in a safety deposit box, is sealed from public inspection, but Dugan is said to have written specific facts about the crime and offered words of remorse.
DuPage State's Attorney Joseph Birkett, who inherited much of the case's mess when he took office in late 1996, is personally prosecuting Dugan. He argues Dugan was just trying to save his own neck, not help the other men.
To prove their point, prosecutors will call a former sheriff's detective to testify in the sentencing hearing that he questioned Dugan in June 1985 about his alibi the day of Jeanine's murder but, instead of coming clean, Dugan said he couldn't recall.
The wrongly accused men, including Rolando Cruz, were cleared in the mid-1990s. Ten years later, in late November 2005, prosecutors cited improved DNA in indicting Dugan for Jeanine's murder. By that time, seven DuPage County law enforcement officials were exonerated of railroading Cruz.
Also Thursday, defense attorney Allan Sincox filed a motion asking Circuit Judge George Bakalis to bar prosecutors from seeking the death penalty. The defense argues the delayed indictment - more than two decades after the crime - makes it too difficult for Dugan to come up with mitigating evidence for mercy since records, witnesses and other evidence disappeared. If Bakalis allows an evidentiary hearing on the issue, Birkett may even be called to testify.
Jury selection begins Sept. 18, when a pool of 150 prospective panelists will fill out detailed questionnaires. Lawyers begin questioning them individually Sept. 22. The entire process - jury selection, the death penalty eligibility phase and sentencing - may take up to seven weeks.
Confession: Jury selection begins Sept. 18