Judge denies motion to dismiss resisting law enforcement, reckless driving case against Lake County Sheriff Oscar Martinez - Chicago Tribune
The criminal case against Lake County Sheriff Oscar Martinez for allegedly resisting law enforcement and reckless driving will move ahead to trial, a judge ruled Monday.
Newton County Circuit Court Judge Jeryl Leach, who is presiding over the case, issued a court order Monday stating he has denied a motion by Paul Stracci and J. Michael Woods, Martinez’s attorneys, to dismiss the case.
In October, the Lake County Board of Commissioners sent a letter to Prosecutor Bernard Carter seeking an investigation into the alleged misuse of some of the county’s new police vehicles.
The state charges stem from a Sept. 18 incident in which Crown Point police officers conducting a traffic stop at about 11:30 p.m. in the 9000 block of Taft Street saw a black SUV traveling northbound on Main Street “at what appeared to be at a speed well above the 45 mph posted limit.”
The SUV continued onto Taft Street in Merrillville, passing the stopped officers. In seeing the speeding violation, officers attempted to catch up to curb the vehicle, according to a police report.
The report continues, saying the SUV was seen making a right-hand turn onto eastbound U.S. 30 in Merrillville. As officers were catching up to the vehicle, the driver activated emergency red and blue police lights, giving notice that it was an unmarked police car. In seeing the lights, officers stopped trying to catch up.
The indictment states that Martinez “did knowingly or intentionally flee” from Crown Point police and that he “did recklessly operate a motor vehicle by driving at such an unreasonably high rate of speed as to endanger the safety or property of others.”
Martinez’s attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the case Feb. 16 stating “the grand jury proceeding yielding the indictment was defective and conducted in violation” of Indiana code and the due process clause of the 14th amendment.
The motion to dismiss states that special prosecutor Stanley Levco, of Evansville, “unduly influenced the neutral and detached atmosphere” of the grand jury proceedings and “constituted a flagrant imposition of the grand jurors’ will or independent judgment so as to now require dismissal.”
Levco and David Thomas, co-special prosecutor, filed a motion in response stating the grand jury statute states a prosecutor “shall” identify the offense committed.
The prosecutor’s motion points to Levco stating “I had originally told you we were looking at two charges, reckless driving and resisting law enforcement. You theoretically could indict him on speeding, and I told you that you can do what you want to do.” Later on, Levco said: “If you do it, I’ll pursue it.”
“Having considered the defendant’s motion to dismiss and the state’s response, the court now denies the defendant’s motion to dismiss,” Leach wrote in the one-page order.
During the March 7 hearing, Stracci requested to push back the April 11 jury trial scheduled for the case because his team was “not done conducting basic discovery,” and they are waiting on subpoena responses.
Leach said last week that June 13 works, but that he will set the trial date during a telephonic conference. The telephonic conference has not yet been held.
source: https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/ct-ptb-sheriff-motion-denied-st-0315-20220314-qpwpqyh47bajxbw55dsf55iaii-story.html
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