"In facing his own tough questioning last week about why authorities pursued their case against Hobbs and held him for five years before dropping charges on Wednesday, Lake County State's Attorney Michael Waller repeatedly pointed to the officers' testimony about Hobbs' confession.
Now, that confession — which Hobbs recanted and his lawyers said was coerced — is one focus of Hobbs' newly retained civil attorney.
Locke Bowman, of Northwestern Law School's MacArthur Justice Center, said he is looking into whether his client's Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights — his rights to be free from unreasonable search and seizure and to due process — might have been violated.
Bowman sees two questions: Why did Hobbs confess to crimes he didn't commit, and why did it take so long for the charges to be dropped?"
REPORTER DAN HINKEL: THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE.
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BACKGROUND: The northern Illinois man jailed on first-degree murder charges in the 2005 stabbing deaths of his daughter and another young girl was freed early in August, 2010, after prosecutors dropped charges because DNA evidence from the crime scene matched that of another man. Hobbs, 39, had pleaded not guilty in the stabbing deaths of his 8-year-old daughter, Laura, and her friend, 9-year-old Krystal Tobias in Zion, about 50 miles north of Chicago. Prosecutors in Lake County had several months earlier that DNA from the crime scene matched another man who once lived in Zion but was in custody in Virginia after being charged in two attacks on women. The DNA match came on June 25 from a national database, where the man's DNA had been recently entered, according to Lake County Deputy State's Attorney Jeffrey Pavletic. Prosecutors then relaunched their investigation. The man in custody in Virginia has not been charged in the 2005 Zion deaths. In May 2005, Jerry Hobbs reported finding the girls' bodies near their homes in Zion. Both had been stabbed numerous times. Prosecutors alleged Hobbs killed them because he was angry his daughter was outside when she was supposed to be home. Police said Hobbs confessed to the slayings, but his attorneys said the confession was coerced. Both defense attorneys and prosecutors have acknowledged there was no physical evidence linking Hobbs to the killings.
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"It was just before 5 a.m., about 21 hours after police had started questioning him, when Jerry Hobbs spoke the words that triggered events that sent him to jail for five years and three months," the August 6, 2010 Chicago Tribune story by reporter Dan Hinkel begins, under the heading, "The day Jerry Hobbs wrongfully admitted killing his daughter and her friend: Questioned off and on over 21 hours, father finally said, 'I did it. Just write it down."
"Detectives in the small, windowless room had just told Hobbs they were positive he had murdered his daughter Laura, 8, and her friend Krystal Tobias, 9 — a conclusion Hobbs steadfastly denied over the previous hours, according to the officers' court testimony. A police officer testified that when Hobbs was told he could soothe the grieving families' anguish if he explained why he killed the girls, Hobbs spoke up," the story continues.
""I did it. Just write it down. Start this thing and send me to the judge," Hobbs said, according to police testimony.
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In facing his own tough questioning last week about why authorities pursued their case against Hobbs and held him for five years before dropping charges on Wednesday, Lake County State's Attorney Michael Waller repeatedly pointed to the officers' testimony about Hobbs' confession.
Now, that confession — which Hobbs recanted and his lawyers said was coerced — is one focus of Hobbs' newly retained civil attorney.
Locke Bowman, of Northwestern Law School's MacArthur Justice Center, said he is looking into whether his client's Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights — his rights to be free from unreasonable search and seizure and to due process — might have been violated.
Bowman sees two questions: Why did Hobbs confess to crimes he didn't commit, and why did it take so long for the charges to be dropped?
It's been known publicly since 2008 that semen found in Laura Hobbs' body did not match Jerry Hobbs' DNA, but prosecutors said that didn't clear him because any sex crime committed might have been unrelated to the killings.
In June, prosecutors learned that DNA was matched to another man, who remains under investigation. Prosecutors stopped short of clearing Hobbs but said he will not be investigated further.
Waller denied Hobbs' rights were violated.
"I don't know what mistakes you could say that the police made," he said.
Judge Fred Foreman ruled in 2006 that the confession was admissible in court, allowing a portrait of Hobbs' intermittent interrogation to emerge. He was questioned over nearly 24 hours, starting when police arrived at his house on May 9, 2005, a few hours after he had alerted them that he'd found Laura's and Krystal's bodies in a Zion park.
About 7:30 that morning, Hobbs drew police a map of where he had found the girls and went willingly to the police station. He volunteered that he had just been released from a Texas prison for a term related to a drunken, chainsaw-wielding rampage through a trailer park, an admission that provoked detectives' suspicion of Hobbs, according to the testimony.
About 10:30 a.m., Hobbs signed a Miranda warning, which typically explains a suspect's right to remain silent or speak with a lawyer. Hobbs did not speak to a lawyer, though officers had started to suspect he was the killer because of the speed with which he found the bodies, his criminal history and the way he called the victims "them girls" instead of using their names, a detective testified.
About 2:30 p.m., Hobbs was confronted over alleged inconsistencies in his statements about finding the girls and what he saw of their injuries. Shortly before a three-hour break in the questioning, Hobbs told them they were "barking up the wrong tree," a detective testified.
Detectives also doubted the authenticity of Hobbs' "moaning and crying" as he continued to deny he was the killer, according to the testimony. About 2 a.m. May 10, Hobbs saw a rosary around a detective's neck and told the officer he believed in God. The detective prayed with him, saying he hoped God would speak to Hobbs and make him realize he should tell the truth about the killings, the officer testified.
About three hours later, Hobbs made his admission and "related the details" of the killings to the officers, according to the testimony.
Detectives composed a statement, and at 5:50 a.m., Jerry Hobbs read and signed the confession."
The story can be found at:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/northnorthwest/ct-met-hobbs-0808-20100806,0,3280215.story
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be accessed at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith
For a breakdown of some of the cases, issues and controversies this Blog is currently following, please turn to:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-feature-cases-issues-and.html
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com;
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