Area Court Cases: Orland and Crestwood Firefighter Faces Charges After Fatal Car Crash

A Plainfield murder trial ended with a guilty verdict on the week's last day—and much, much more, in this edition of Court Supervision.

Judge Orders More Fingerprinting in Buell Court Home Invasion Case

Cook County Judge Colleen Ann Hyland warned prosecutors that the next round of fingerprinting of the three defendants in the 2011 Buell Court home invasion case will be the last.

Authorities want to identify a fingerprint found on a magazine in the botched Buell Court home invasion case that ended in the shooting of a woman last August, prosecutors told a Cook County judge Tuesday. Subscribe to the Oak Lawn Patch newsletter and breaking news alerts. That was the reason why the Cook County prosecutors asked Judge Colleen Ann Hyland for one more set of prints to be taken from the three defendants charged with attempted murder, aggravated kidnapping and home invasion.  Authorities say Timmie Walton, 28, of Midlothian, and Keon Thigpen, 23, and Kennedy Clark, 51, both of Chicago, forced two women inside a home in the 10100 block of South Buell Court on Aug. 3. Once inside, a male relative reportedly fired a shotgun in…

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Former Village Employee Pleads Guilty to Choking 14-Year-Old Girl, Gets Probation

Former Village of Oak Lawn public works employee Michael T. Kelly, 55, pleads guilty to aggravated battery in the August 2011 attack on a 14-year-old girl, and is sentenced to two years’ probation and anger management classes.

  A Cook County judge sentenced Michael T. Kelly, 55, who was accused of choking and beating a 14-year-old girl last summer, to two years probation and anger management classes after Kelly pleaded guilty to aggravated battery on Thursday. Sign up to get Oak Lawn Patch breaking news alerts. Kelly, a retired Village of Oak Lawn public works employee, appeared in Judge John J. Hynes' Bridgeview courtroom wearing a blue shirt and gray slacks next to his attorney, Ed Barron. Prosecutors reviewed details of the Aug. 29, 2011 incident, where Oak Lawn police say Kelly rammed his bike into the 14-year-old girl, and then grabbed her off her own bike in a chokehold. Kelly held the girl down on the ground in a headlock and punched her in the head …

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Peterson Jury Picked, Trial Set to Start

Seven men and five women have been chosen as jurors for the trial set to start Tuesday.

The final five jurors and four alternate jurors were picked for Drew Peterson's much anticipated murder trial, and opening statements are expected to be heard Monday. Attorney Joel Brodsky said he will be the one handling opening statements for the defense and revealed his plan to tell "the story of Drew Peterson, from beginning to end." And when Brodsky is done with that story, said defense attorney Steve Greenberg, the jury will be convinced that Peterson did not murder his third wife, Kathleen Savio, by hitting her in the head and drowning her in a bathtub. "There's going to be no question she slipped in the tub and Drew was home when it happened," said Greenberg, who also scoffed at the idea that fresh bruises were discovered on Savio …

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Peterson Murder Trial: 8 in the Box

Follow Joliet Patch's coverage of Drew Peterson trial. Eight jurors were chosen in ex-Bolingbrook cop's trial for the alleged murder of his third wife Kathleen Savio.

Will County Judge Edward Burmila held a marathon jury selection session Monday and empaneled eight jurors for the Drew Peterson murder trial. It was the very first day of jury selection and Burmila kept 31 of 40 prospective jurors for nearly 12 hours—past 9 p.m. Eight more people are needed for the 12-person jury and the four alternates. Peterson, who appeared in court in a gray jacket, dark pants, a new haircut—and without his trademark mustache—stands accused of murdering his third wife, Kathleen Savio. Savio was found drowned in a dry bathtub in March 2004. Depsite the tumultuous, occasionnally violent divorce she was going through with Peterson, and the strange circumstances of her death, the Illinois State Police quickly dismissed her…

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