A Du Page County judge Wednesday refused to permit a defense lawyer to interview one of the grand jurors who indicted Vincent DiVincenzo, 18, of Addison in connection with the May 27 murder of another Addison man.
The county grand jury first considered DiVincenzo’s case in June at one of its twice-weekly sessions in the county courthouse in Wheaton and voted a “no bill,” meaning they decided not to charge him with a crime.
However, Assistant Du Page County State’s Attorneys Kathryn Creswell and John Kinsella subsequently disclosed to DiVincenzo’s lawyer, Joseph LaRaia, that Kinsella made another presentation to the grand jury later that day, after which the grand jurors voted the murder indictment.
The prosecutors won’t state publicly what motivated their return to the grand jury, but they did disclose to LaRaia that while the grand jurors were on a lunch break after voting the “no bill,” one of them talked to a Westmont police officer about the DiVincenzo case. The officer reported the conversation to prosecutors before they resumed their presentation on the DiVincenzo case, prosecutors disclosed.
Grand jury proceedings are, by law, secret, and the juror was dismissed a few days later.
LaRaia had sought to interview the former juror to find out what he told the Westmont officer and to determine whether the conversation so tainted the process that the indictment should be dismissed.
However on Wednesday, Circuit Judge John J. Nelligan ruled that he does not have the authority to order the grand juror to submit to an interview.
Creswell and Kinsella have argued that if there were improper prosecutorial conduct before the grand jury, it would be revealed in the transcript of the grand jury hearings, and that LaRaia is entitled to no further inquiry on the issue other than a reading of the transcript itself.
However, LaRaia said Wednesday that he plans to subpoena Creswell, Kinsella and the Westmont officer to recount the conversations. Prosecutors plan to fight the subpoenas.
DiVincenzo has pleaded innocent to the murder of Joseph Novy, 20. Both were star athletes at Addison Trail High School.
Addison police said DiVincenzo believed Novy was dating a woman who had been DiVincenzo’s girlfriend. Police said DiVincenzo pulled Novy’s car over and kicked and beat him to death.
