The Kane County State’s Attorney blows it again!

There’s nothing scarier than a reckless prosecutor. – Tucker Carlson

It’s déjà vu all over again. – Yogi Berra

On the one hand, I’m grateful for those public officials who selflessly work to provide me with consistent content. But on the other metacarpus, I’m increasingly terrified of Jamie Mosser’s capacity to make the kind of horrific decisions that set her apart from the other Illinois state’s attorneys.

To wit, in a recent column on Kane County bond reform, I offered a teaser regarding our State’s Attorney “single-handedly undermining a three-year chronic drunk driving case.” And now that those DUI chickens have come home to roost, it’s time to tell the story.

But before we continue, I want to give Daily Herald reporter Sue Sarkauskus credit for catching onto these shenanigans while she was covering something else. Without her report, there wouldn’t be mine.

It starts with Malachi V. Hurt, 48, of Aurora, Illinois, pleading guilty to felony aggravated drunk driving – his third such offense – on December 2. As part of the plea deal Hurt was to serve four years as a guest of the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Per the statutory requirement, all defendants have 30 days to withdraw a guilty plea and decide to take their chances with a judge or jury instead. So, it’s important to note that Chief Judge clint Hull accepted the guilty plea on behalf of then felony court Judge D. J. Tegeler who was recovering from surgery at the time.

In the immortal words of that great philosopher Don Henley, “Are you with me, so far?”

And the story should’ve ended with those congenial IDOC folks taking Mr. Hurt into their custody shortly thereafter. But that didn’t happen because Governor Pointless, a man renowned for his blatant disregard for the rule of law, illegally declared that the State would not be accepting new prisoners until their COVID problems cleared up.

This, of course, thrust the problem back upon the counties whose jails were never equipped to handle that plague era overflow. And sure enough! On December 28, a KC Jail guard found Hurt unresponsive in his cell and he was transferred to Delnor Hospital where he was diagnosed with being in a COVID incited coma.

This, of course, begs the question, “How can anyone withdraw a guilty plea when they’re unconscious?

Mosser would later claim that was the mitigating factor in her forthcoming poor judgement, but I’m betting she was feeling the heat from those KC elected officials who were unhappy with footing the bill for Hurt’s care when Hurt should’ve been the State of Illinois’ problem.

But that’s certainly no excuse! If a state’s attorney can’t handle the kind of pressure that inevitably comes with that job, then perhaps they’d be better off seeking employment as a Dunkin donut hole maker.

With just two days left to vacate the plea, Mosser conspired with Public Defender Rachele Conant to enter the withdrawal on Hurt’s behalf which is patently illegal. The statute is abundantly clear that the only one who can withdraw a guilty plea is the person who issued it.

Mosser musta missed that day of law school.

Worse yet, instead of taking that withdrawal motion before Judge Tegeler, who was back on the bench, Mosser went to Judge Hull because she knew he’d be far more amenable to her scheme.

Oh! And for reference purposes, that’s a really good way of getting’ on a judge’s “naughty list” which never bodes well for any attorney’s future.

So, Mosser and Conant withdrew Hurt’s plea, Judge Hull inexplicably went along with the ploy, and then our dynamic duo secured Hurt’s recognizance bond despite his inability to sign the document which rendered it completely worthless.

Now, with the plea withdrawn and no bond to speak of, if and when Mr. Hurt emerged from his coma he could’ve walked out of Delnor a free man. Why am I never the recipient of this kind of legal largesse? And I’m such a nice guy, too!

To be fair, when I used the word “conspired,” it was a bit unfair to Conant. The reality is, if you tell a defense attorney you’re about to set their client free with no strings attached, they’re probably not going to say “no.”

But as an officer of the court, and out of a basic sense of morality, it would’ve been nice if Conant had the nerve to say, “Jamie, I think you’ve been watching too many episodes of ‘I Love Lucy’ and I’m not gonna go along with your harebrained scheme because it will backfire on both of us, a judge will have our hides, and Jeff Ward will write about it.”

But she didn’t.

And call me crazy, but couldn’t the State and the PD’s office have simply entered into an agreement to reset Hurt’s 30-day window to the day he woke up?

Hurt did emerge from the coma two weeks later and he was transferred to a rehabilitation facility, but the KCSAO still somehow failed to get him to sign the bond document so he walked out of that building a free man. I’m not sure how they caught up with him, but the KCSAO did finally get Hurt to surrender his signature, But then, to no semi-sentient sixth-grader’s surprise, he failed to show up in court to re-enter his guilty plea.

That’s when a livid Judge Tegeler sent Mosser one of those official invitations to his courtroom and Ms. Sarkauskus witnessed the kind of dressing down that woulda made a 1960’s St. Nick’s nun jealous.

Tegeler accused the State’s Attorney of judge shopping, he said it was his case and not Hull’s, and that he was sympathetic to Hurt’s plight, but no one can withdraw a guilty but the defendant, and the worst case of COVID was not nearly a mitigating factor. But instead of shutting up and taking her medicine as any attorney with half-a-brain would’ve done, Mosser publicly declared that she was “protecting the people of Illinois” and looking out for Mr. Hurt’s “legal rights.”

Isn’t that the defense attorney’s job? And if it isn’t, then who’s lookin’ out for us?

Since I’m famed for my willingness to give public officials the benefit of the doubt, I’m thinking Ms. Mosser is suffering from the kind of random memory lapses that make her forget she’s the state’s attorney. So, my advice to her would be this. Get one of those big bright green sticky notes from your office manager, write “Don’t forget you’re a prosecutor” on it, and firmly attach it to the outside of your office door.

Problem solved!

You didn’t think we were done this story, did you?

Let’s fast forward to this week when a Henry County source told me that Hurt was being held in their County lockup on all manner of drug charges. And when I called their circuit clerk to confirm the story, the staffer asked to which of Hurt’s cases was I referring, to which I replied, “There’s more than one?”

Then she proceeded to list at least a dozen mostly felony counts which come in addition to…wait for it…SIXTY similar Kane County charges including traffic, criminal contempt, felonies, and DUI’s since 1990. It would seem that Mr. Hurt’s singular skillset consists of getting caught.

This is the kind of “model citizen” whose “rights” State’s Attorney Mosser wants to “protect?” I’m thinking I should nominate myself for a Nobel Prize.

So, Mr. Hurt is, indeed, sitting in the Henry County slammer on an April 8 $100,000 bond for allegedly manufacturing, possessing, and delivering some form of cocaine which would not have been possible without Ms. Mosser’s amazing generosity.

I’m gonna keep on sayin’ it. You can’t make this stuff up.

Though he doesn’t share Mosser’s culpability, if for no other reason than I wouldn’t want to give Jeff Ward a reason to describe how you screwed up in great detail, Judge Hull should NOT have accepted the plea withdrawal. He should’ve referred Mosser right back to Tegeler at which point she would’ve dropped the whole thing. Though it’s certainly not up to a judge to look up a defendant’s criminal history, in this bizarre case that’s exactly what should’ve happened. All it took was a keyboard and a ten-minute phone call for me to figure it all out.

While we’ve certainly had a little fun with this series of events, it’s actually not very funny. Considering this is the second similar Mosser story in two months, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that she’ll eventually let someone loose who will commit a murder and there won’t be this kind of happy ending. How does that old saying go? With friends like our State’s Attorney’s office, who needs enemies? I’m thinking the County Board should authorize Mosser to act as a prosecutor and a public defender because it would save time and money, and she’s doing it anyway.

So, I’ll just keep reciting the mantra “only two more years of this insanity” and I promise I’ll remind you about all of this at election time.