STATE OF ILLINOIS

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE 17TH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT

COUNTY OF WINNEBAGO

THE PEOPLE OF THE

VVVVVVVVVVV
STATE OF ILLINOIS,
Case NO. 14 CF 922
Plaintiff,

VS.

RICHARD WANKE,
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Defendant.
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l2 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS at the hearing Of the

13 above—entitled cause before the Honorable ROSEMARY COLLINS,

14 Judge of said Court, on the 19th day of December, 2014.

15

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17 APPEARANCES: MR. F. JAMES BRUN,

Assistant State's Attorney,
18 on behalf of the People;

19 MR‘ DERRICK SCHMIDT and

MS. ERIN HANNIGAN,
20 Assistant Public Defenders,
on behalf of the Defendant.
21

22

23 Sandra Brassfield, CSR

17th Judicial Circuit
24 Rockford, Illinois
License No. 084—003291
 THE COURT: No. 6, People versus Richard Wanke.

All right. This is People versus Richard

Wanke. Mr. Wanke is now in the courtroom. Good afternoon.

Would each party identify themselves then.

MR. BRUN: James Brun on behalf of the People.

MR. SCHMIDT: Good afternoon, Your Honor,

Derrick Schmidt on behalf of Mr. Wanke.

MS. HANNIGAN: Erin Hannigan on behalf of

Mr. Wanke.

10 THE COURT: Thank you. We are here today for

11 continued hearing on the defendant's amended request to

12 remove the Winnebago County Public Defender's Office as

13 Defendant's counsel.

14 MR. BRUN: Your Honor, at the last court date

15 the Court asked us to locate various transcripts. At this

16 time, if I may approach and provide a copy to the Court.

17 THE COURT: All right.

18 MR. BRUN: I have exerts of a transcript from

19 06 CF 405. This is the testimony of Barbara Brown. It's

2O August 6th before Judge McGraw. Ms. O'Connor was present.

21 It does include her testimony as well as the Court's ruling,

22 which I believe was the flagged area.

23 In regards to the second transcript, I believe

24 it was presented by the defendant that Ms. Brown also

 testified in 1998. I was unable to locate that transcript,

Your Honor.

THE COURT: When you say Barbara Brown, are

you also talking about Maribeth Brown?

MR. SCHMIDT: Yes.

MR. BRUN: Yes, Your Honor.

THE COURT: Okay.

MR. BRUN: And the final request that we had

discussed at the last court date was an affidavit from

10 Detective Whisenand, reference who was spoken to in the

ll public defender's office.

12 At this point, I did speak with Detective

13 Whisenand right after court. He was going to look into it.

14 And he did speak with me the following morning. He was

15 unable to determine any additional information that was

16 included in the reports. But he was also going to speak

17 with Detectives Torry Regez and David Lee.

18 THE COURT: Okay.

19 MR. BRUN: I have not received that

20 information back yet.

21 THE COURT: He does not have any personal

22 recollection of who it was?

23 MR. BRUN: No, Your Honor, he does not.

24 THE COURT: Okay. Counsel.

 MR. SCHMIDT: Yes, Your Honor. A couple of

things. That report —- the person in the public defender's

office, that was in Detective Regez's report, so that

probably would be the easiest person to talk to regarding

that matter.

Also, I was informed by Mr. Wanke that he

filed a motion to supplement Defendant's 12/12/14 motion

and 12/15/14 argument. I don't know if that made it to the

court file.

10 THE COURT: Well, I'm not considering any

ll filings that Mr. Wanke makes. So whether it's in the court

12 file or not is not —— the Court doesn't consider him to be

13 co—counsel on this case.

14 So if you have filings that you want to bring

15 to my attention, or if you want further time to review that,

16 you can do that. But the fact that he files motions ——

17 MR. SCHMIDT: (Interrupting) I completely

18 understand that, Your Honor. However, in this case, on this

19 very slim issue, I have told Mr. Wanke that, you know, this

20 is a very personal issue and that I would let him speak on

21 this issue and to clear the absolute error on this issue

22 between me, my office, Mr. Wanke.

23 I don't want any stone unturned; to think, (A),

24 that I'm holding back on something just due to my position

 with the office.

So I have no problem adopting Mr. Wanke's

amendment —~ or a Motion to Supplement ~—

THE COURT: (Interrupting) I don't see anything

in the court file, so if you would —— are they typed?

MR. SCHMIDT: Yes.

THE COURT: Okay.

MR. SCHMIDT: May I approach?

THE COURT: If you want to hand them to the

10 Court.

ll MR. BRUN: And, for the record, Your Honor, I

12 have received, well, before coming to this courtroom, a

13 motion to supplement the defendant's arguments from December

14 12, 2014, and it does have a file stamp on it of today's date.

15 THE COURT: Okay.

16 MR. SCHMIDT: The only thing I would ask is if

17 that could be sealed for now. My e—mail address is on one

18 of the exhibits, Exhibit A. And I would ask that that be

19 redacted in the future since this is for —— open for the

20 public.

21 THE COURT: Redact it right now. It's not

22 critical to the motion.

23 MR. SCHMIDT: No.

24 THE COURT: So redact it right now, because I

 won't seal it. So let's redact it.

And I don‘t know if the clerk has that or not.

It does have a file stamp, but it is file stamped today.

MR. SCHMIDT: Correct.

THE COURT: I don't know that it's in the file

yet.

THE CLERK: NO.

THE COURT: The clerk doesn't even have it

scanned yet.

10 THE CLERK: I can't get the scanner to open.

ll I'm sorry, Your Honor.

12 THE COURT: The clerk can't get even get the

l3 scanner to open.

14 MR. SCHMIDT: I understand.

15 THE COURT: So what I'm telling you to do ——

16 and I have —— I will sign an order to this effect. So it's

17 clear, the Court is giving you permission to strike that

18 from the document. But you better go down to the clerk's

19 office and get it. Because once it's scanned, it's scanned.

20 MR. SCHMIDT: Yes, Your Honor, understood. As

21 far as the question, Your Honor's request from our office

22 was to speak to Mr. Doll ——

23 THE COURT: Uh—huh (affirmative response).

24 MR. SCHMIDT: (Continuing) -— deputy public

 defender, regarding the issue of funds and experts. And I

did speak with him regarding that issue. And his straight—

up answer was that Ms. Sorensen has two absolute functions.

One is to assign homicide cases; the other one is to

allocate the budget.

And there is no way around that; as far as Mr.

Doll cannot allocate money without going through Ms.

Sorensen which causes a, quite honestly, a huge problem as

far as experts and things like that.

10 I had thought that, quite honestly, they would

ll find a way around that, and I was surprised by the answer.

12 But it does not seem like there is any way around that,

13 just a straight answer.

14 So every decision we make on experts does

15 eventually go, as far as the money, go through Ms. Sorensen

16 who has been personally conflicted off the case.

17 THE COURT: Okay. Thank you for that

18 response. Anything else then?

19 MR. BRUN: Nothing else at this time, Your Honor.

20 THE COURT: All right. When do you think you‘ll

21 get that information from the officers?

22 MR. BRUN: Your Honor, actually before coming

23 to court I did try calling Detective Regez and Detective

24 Whisenand. I left messages on both phones but no contact

 back yet. I would hope I would have it, with the holidays ——

we were going to set a date. I'm not here next Monday and

Tuesday but next Friday if the Court is available.

THE COURT: I'm not here.

MR. BRUN: All right.

THE COURT: Okay. And, counsel, I would ask

that you get me a courtesy copy of your attachment to ——

that Ms. Hannigan has in her hand; if you would get me a

courtesy copy of that.

10 MR. SCHMIDT: Your Honor may have that one.

ll THE COURT: Then go make sure you get the one

12 that's going to be filed.

13 MR. SCHMIDT: Yes.

14 THE COURT: All right. We'll set it over then,

15 give the Court a chance to review this and also hear what

16 other information. Well, I am going to be in trial the

17 fist week of January but I do think we'll be able to move

18 through it fairly quickly. How about Wednesday, January

19 7th in the afternoon, say 3:00 o'clock?

20 MR. SCHMIDT: I will be here.

21 MR. BRUN: Your Honor, I may not be available,

22 but I'll have Ms. Hite Ross present.

23 THE COURT: Okay. 3:00 o'clock then on

24 January 7th.
 MR. BRUN: Thank you.

THE COURT: This is still on Defendant‘s

motion; time tolled.

MR. SCHMIDT: Yes, ma'am.

THE COURT: Thank you.

MR. SCHMIDT: Thank you, Your Honor.

THE COURT: That motion hasn't yet made it to

the court file yet, according to this clerk. She was able

to access it now. I don't know if it's already been filed.

10 Maybe you can find out.

ll MR. SCHMIDT: Yes, Your Honor.

12 THE COURT: Do you believe you'll need a

13 document from the Court giving you permission to delete

14 that information, if it's already been filed?

15 MR. SCHMIDT: It can't hurt. I will prepare

16 one.

17 THE COURT: January 7th. You put that wrong

18 on here.

19 MR. BRUN: Oh, I‘m sorry.

20 THE DEFENDANT: Thank you, Your Honor.

21 THE COURT: Uh—huh (affirmative response).

22 Thank you.

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CERTIFICATE OF SHORTHAND REPORTER

I, Sandra Brassfield, a Certified Shorthand

Reporter in and for the State of Illinois, do hereby
certify that I reported in stenographic shorthand the
testimony given in the aforesaid cause and that the
foregoing transcript is a true and correct transcription of
my stenographic notes so taken as aforesaid and contains
all the testimony given at said cause to the best of my
ability.

I further certify that I am neither attorney or

counsel for, nor related to or employed by any of the
parties in this action, and further that I am not a
relative or employee of any attorney or counsel employed by
the parties hereto or financially interested in the action.
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Dated this 13th day of January, 2015.
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14 rm
Sandra‘Erass@
i 1d, CSR
15 License NO. 084 003291
17th Judicial Circuit
16 State of Illinois

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