Poll to gauge if publicity hurt Brian Dugan's chance of fair trial

Brian J. Dugan first made headlines in 1985 when he was imprisoned for life for two killings and a series of sex attacks on young women who survived.

But media coverage of the former 51-year-old Aurora man reached a fever pitch three years ago when he was indicted for the Feb. 25, 1983, abduction, rape and murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico of Naperville.

His defense team has hired a private polling firm to gauge a potential jury pool's knowledge of the sensational death penalty case. If the polling shows jury bias, his lawyers will ask that his trial be moved out of DuPage County.

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Officials with Communication Express in Carbondale confirmed they will conduct the automated telephone poll later this summer. Residents in up to a few thousand DuPage County households will be asked to answer a handful of questions about the case.

The poll's cost is capped at $5,000. DuPage Circuit Judge George Bakalis approved the expense June 9. His approval is necessary because Dugan's defense is being paid mostly from the state's capital litigation fund, set up in 2000 for poor defendants facing the death penalty.

A Daily Herald review of a popular media search engine showed 222 stories about Brian Dugan have been published in the past five years, coverage that does not include television and radio. At least one recent book also includes his story.

Communication Express conducts corporate, legal, political and marketing research. It did a similar venue poll in the high-profile case of a Clinton couple accused of intentionally drowning the woman's three children Sept. 2, 2003. Both trials were moved out of DeWitt County.

Earlier this month, Bakalis also approved a second defense motion to retain noted psychiatrist James Cavanaugh to evaluate Dugan at a cost of no more than $14,000. Such mental evaluations are routine in high-profile cases, but the defense's choice of Cavanaugh is particularly strategic since he was DuPage State's Attorney Joe Birkett's expert in his prosecution of Marilyn Lemak.

The Naperville woman is serving life in prison after a DuPage County jury rejected her insanity defense for the murders of her three young children amid a bitter divorce in March 1999. Cavanaugh found her sane. Bakalis also presided over that trial.

Dugan has been in prison serving life terms since 1985 after pleading guilty to two other sex slayings. He killed 7-year-old Melissa Ackerman June 1985 in Somonauk, and Geneva nurse Donna Schnorr in July 1984, in Kane County.

Dugan claimed sole responsibility for Jeanine's murder during 1985 protected plea talks for the other two slayings, but prosecutors didn't pursue it because he said he'd only confess if his life was spared -- a deal they still refuse to make.

Meanwhile, three other men were charged and eventually cleared, but not before two of them spent a decade on death row. Their trials were moved out of DuPage County because of pretrial publicity.

Nearly three years ago, prosecutors indicted Dugan for Jeanine's murder, citing, in part, improved DNA evidence -- semen and hair -- they allege implicates him.

Dugan has pleaded innocent. Bakalis set a preliminary Jan. 20 trial date. Dugan is back in court today, when lawyers are set to debate constitutionality arguments regarding the death penalty.