Judge upholds charges in Elburn heroin death

A Maple Park man charged in the heroin-related death of a 17-year-old Elburn boy lost his bid to dismiss the case Wednesday.

Nathan L. Green, 23, of the 20900 block of Oak Lane, had argued his right to a speedy trial was violated after prosecutors amended his criminal complaint in September and added a new charge.

Green, who has been in the county jail for nearly a year, has agreed to continuances in the case for months, but that was before the state changed the complaint.

His attorney argued he had a right to stand trial on the state's revised case within 120 days of his arrest last January.

"You cannot agree to a continuance on one charge and then be considered to have agreed on another later on," said Thomas McCulloch, a public defender. "You can't agree to stuff that's not filed."

Green is accused of supplying Michael York with heroin, then abandoning him in a Chicago alley, where he was later found dead, after an apparent overdose at a December 2007 party in St. Charles.

He initially was charged with unlawful delivery of a controlled substance and obstructing justice. But eight months later, prosecutors amended the charges to specify that Green delivered heroin to York, and charged additionally that he delivered drugs to a co-defendant, Lindsey Parker of St. Charles. The obstructing justice charge also was amended to specify that Green "concealed" evidence by dumping York in Chicago.

Judge Allen M. Anderson sided with prosecutors Wednesday in denying Green's motion to drop all counts. Assistant Kane County State's Attorney Kelly Orland had argued the new charge was "separate" from Green's obstructing justice case, and the result of new evidence coming to light. She said the amendments to the original counts weren't substantial enough to affect the trial time frame.

Green, who returns to court Jan. 22, is being held on a $125,000 bond. He has pleaded not guilty.