A Crystal Lake woman, who discovered after her jury trial that a juror had communicated with a witness during the trail (and who had failed to report it to the judge), now has new special public defender. In court this morning Judge Weech granted her previous special public defender's motion to be discharged and then he appointed Bill Bligh to represent her.
The woman filed her own Motion recently, asking the court to declare a mistrial. Unknown to her at the time she filed pro se, was that her special public defender was filing two motions: one for a new trial and the other to be discharged today, which was to be the day of sentencing on two convictions.
There had been four charges. The judge had granted a directed verdict of not guilty on one of them, and the jury found her not guilty on one.
The case is now three years old. It could have been all over in three months.
How many cases are there in McHenry County Circuit Court like this one? I heard Judge Weech say in court last week that he has 20 cases set for trial every Monday. That's got to be an impossible load. Maybe a committee of prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, court administrators and the public needs to be formed to set a new standard for handling court cases.
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