After 10 1/2 hours of deliberation Friday, five men accused of railroading Rolando Cruz onto Death Row for the 1983 slaying of Jeanine Nicarico were acquitted of charges of conspiracy, perjury, obstruction of justice and official misconduct.
The announcement of the verdicts sparked bedlam in the courtroom, which was packed with more than 100 spectators.
As the jury began to file out, Thomas Knight, a former Cruz prosecutor, walked across the room to shake hands with one of the jurors as DuPage County Sheriff’s Lt. James Montesano stood up, raised two clinched fists in the air and said over and over, “Thank you.”
And then, in a scene that veteran defense lawyers said they had never seen before, all of the jurors returned to the courtroom and began hugging the defendants. Members of both groups had tears in their eyes as backs were slapped and family members moved in as well, exchanging high-fives.
Before the jury verdicts were announced, Judge William Kelly announced his acquittal of DuPage Sheriff’s Lt. Robert Winkler, who had chosen a bench trial. Kelly noted that the central allegation against Winkler was that Cruz had made a statement to him in the DuPage County Jail and that Winkler had embellished it over the course of Cruz’s three trials in the slaying of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico of Naperville Township.
The judge said Cruz’s testimony denying that he had ever spoken to Winkler was “implausible.” He said the issue of whether Winkler embellished it was a separate matter and that the prosecution failed to prove the defendant committed perjury.
The acquittals of Knight, Montesano and the other two defendants, DuPage Sheriff’s Detectives Thomas Vosburgh and Dennis Kurzawa, were then read aloud. Their family members began to weep and shout in relief. As Kurzawa walked from the defense table into the spectators section and embraced his wife, Knight’s attorney, Terry Ekl, sat at the defense table sobbing.
Almost immediately, DuPage County State’s Atty. Joseph Birkett filed a motion asking for an order terminating the appointment of special prosecutor William Kunkle and his staff.
Joseph Laraia, attorney for Montesano, was stunned by the jury’s reaction. “I’ve never seen a jury who loved the people (on trial) so much. They said they were so pleased to be able to do this.”
Terence Gillespie, attorney for Kurzawa, agreed, saying, “This is an unbelievable scene. Never in all my years as a defense lawyer have I seen anything like this reaction by this jury.”
Tom and Pat Nicarico, the parents of the slain girl, have always stood by the law-enforcement officials since they were indicted and were at the courthouse when the verdicts were announced.
“They never should have been there. These are good men who did their jobs. The jury saw the truth,” said Pat Nicarico.
Tom Nicarico, however, in an apparent reference to Cruz’s acquittal in 1995, noted angrily, “We don’t trust the system. It doesn’t always work. It worked tonight. Thank God Almighty.”
The indictment of the five men and two other former prosecutors, Patrick King and Robert Kilander, who were acquitted by the judge at the end of the prosecution’s case last month, was a direct outgrowth of Cruz’s acquittal following testimony by Montesano.
Montesano had testified during a pretrial hearing in August 1995 that he believed Vosburgh and Kurzawa had telephoned him on the night of May 9, 1983, seeking advice because Cruz was telling them incriminating details about the crime.
At the pretrial hearing, Montesano said he advised the detectives to call Knight, who was preparing to impanel a grand jury to investigate the slaying.
The pretrial testimony was crucial because it corroborated Kurzawa and Vosburgh’s statements that after speaking to Montesano, they called Knight, who advised them to stop questioning Cruz. Kurzawa and Vosburgh also claimed that Knight told them they need not write a report about Cruz’s statements because he planned to call Cruz before the grand jury three days later and would question him then.
But two months later, at Cruz’s third trial, Montesano broke the link. He testified that he was on vacation in Florida on May 9, 1983, and therefore could not have taken the call that Kurzawa and Vosburgh claimed they made to him.
With that testimony casting doubt on Vosburgh and Kurzawa, the case collapsed, and DuPage County Circuit Judge Ronald Mehling acquitted Cruz.
Following the acquittal, Kunkle was appointed a special prosecutor. He convened a grand jury that returned the 47-count indictment alleging conspiracy, perjury and official misconduct after months of testimony from a variety of witnesses, including Cruz and all of the defendants except Montesano.
The indictment was historic in scope and nature charging that three prosecutors and four sheriff’s police officers had conspired to frame Cruz and send him to Death Row. Never before had an indictment alleged such a conspiracy, and no other case had alleged that prosecutors perpetuated their deceit for so long.
Cruz initially came in contact with investigators in April 1983 and, according to his account, began spinning a web of lies and half-truths designed to convince authorities that he had information about the crime.
Later, the detectives would say that on May 9, 1983, Cruz began talking about having a dream or vision of the crime in which he saw Jeanine being assaulted and killed.
Cruz was indicted along with two other men, Alejandro Hernandez and Stephen Buckley, in March 1984.
Cruz and Hernandez were convicted at the first trial after Vosburgh and Kurzawa both testified about the dream statement. Cruz and Hernandez were sentenced to death. A mistrial was declared for Buckley after the jury deadlocked.
The convictions were set aside by the Illinois Supreme Court, which ruled that the defendants should have received separate trials. In the meantime, the charges against Buckley were dropped.
In June 1985, Brian Dugan, a convicted murderer, offered to plead guilty to acting alone in the Nicarico case if authorities would waive the death penalty.
Yet DuPage authorities brought Cruz and Hernandez to trial again, and both were again convicted.
Those convictions were also set aside, and in 1995, Cruz was acquitted. Charges against Hernandez were later dropped.
The trial of the seven defendants–known as the DuPage 7–began with jury selection on March 9 and opening statements were heard beginning April 6.
In dramatic, often contentious testimony over four days, Cruz denied making the dream statement.
But during excruciating cross-examination in which he was caught lying again, Cruz blurted out that he still struggles to tell the truth.
“I see a psychiatrist now and I work real hard on stopping lying,” he volunteered.
