Kane County jurist D.J. Tegeler will be the 'Chief' judge Sunday
Sharp-eyed visitors to the courtroom of Kane County Judge D.J. Tegeler might have noticed it.
Tucked beneath his black judicial robe, Tegeler was showing his love for the Kansas City Chiefs on Tuesday with a scarlet dress shirt and gold tie matching the AFC champs' team colors.
While many in the suburbs will be cheering on native son Jimmy Garoppolo and his San Francisco 49ers in the big game Sunday, Tegeler will be rooting for the team's he's loved his entire life.
“I have bled red and gold for as long as I can remember,” Tegeler told us.
A Kansas City, Missouri, native, Tegeler attended his first Chiefs game in 1963. He was 3 weeks old.
“I'm told I cried through the whole thing,” Tegeler said in an interview in his office, which he has bedecked with Chiefs tchotchkes.
He recalls meeting the victorious Chiefs team at the airport after the 1970 Super Bowl, the team's last appearance in the big game until Sunday. During the roughly 800 games in between - yes, he's kept track - he's met players and the owners, attended practices and even was interviewed by NFL Films.
His family's move to Illinois in 1976 did nothing to curb his fandom. These days, he drives to Kansas City, with friends or his brother, to attend five to eight home games a year. He's so devoted that while he was on vacation in Germany in December, he managed to find a TV station carrying the team's first playoff game and listened to the play-by-play in German, a language he doesn't speak.
But despite his ardent fandom for the Chiefs, Tegeler isn't making the trip to Miami for Sunday's Super Bowl because he needs to be back in court Monday morning presiding over felony cases.
Instead, he will watch at home, nervously, with his family and a few friends.
“I won't enjoy it until it is over,” he joked.
About that 2017 draft
While Bears fans have hammered the team's management over the last two years for trading up to draft quarterback Mitch Trubisky when they could have stayed put and chosen future Chiefs superstar Patrick Mahomes, Tegeler has a more generous take on the situation.
“I don't think anybody realized” how good Mahomes would become, he said.
Not just football
Tegeler is also a true-blue Kansas City Royals baseball fan. How much so? His youngest daughter's initials are K.C.R., as in Kansas City Royals.
The “R” actually stands for Royal. She was born in 2015, shortly after the Royals won the World Series.
Fugitive couple captured
Todd and Priscilla Olshefski of Lombard, who fled the area last year amid allegations they created a fake veterans charity and pocketed the donations, are back in DuPage County. The county jail, to be specific.
Wheaton police tell us the couple were captured in Volusia County, Florida, on Nov. 8 and, after an extradition fight, were sent back to Illinois.
Priscilla pleaded guilty in July and was given probation. Husband Todd's case was still going on. But in late September he failed to show up for a court date, and then Priscilla missed several probation appointments. Arrest warrants were issued.
Priscilla Olshefski pleaded guilty in July to use of charitable trust funds for personal benefit and was sentenced to 170 days in jail and two years probation.
She's scheduled to be back in a DuPage courtroom today, when Judge George Bakalis could be asked to revoke her probation and give her a harsher sentence.
Todd Olshefski is due in court Feb. 18 on a misuse of charitable funds charge.
Testing 1, 2, 3
Illinois State Police leaders appeared before a state Senate committee this week to say they're making progress chipping away at the huge backlog of evidence awaiting DNA testing.
According to agency Director Brendan F. Kelly, scientists completed 13,793 DNA test assignments last year, helping to cut the testing backlog by 16%.
“The increase in assignment completion rates is finally outpacing the increase in assignments being created,” he said.
The progress, Kelly said, is a result of numerous steps taken recently, including the addition of new technology and new controls to monitor the testing process and scientists' work.
“For years, members of this body have called for the ISP to act on numerous fronts, and I'm heartened to be able to tell you that each of those demands are systemically and comprehensively being met,” Kelly told senators.
The effort also includes the hiring of 22 new forensic scientists last year, with 24 more beginning training this year, Kelly said. State police are planning a new lab in the Will County area, he added.
Have a question, tip or comment? Email us at copsandcrime@dailyherald.com.