"Melissa Calusinski will be transferred from prison back to the
Lake County Jail next month for a hearing on a potential new murder
trial in the 2009 death of a child at a Lincolnshire day care center. On
Tuesday, Lake County Circuit Court Judge Daniel Shanes scheduled
evidentiary hearings for Aug. 18, Aug. 19 and Sept. 16. The September
date was set for a witness with a medical condition who will be unable
to attend the August hearings. The hearings are expected to focus on what Calusinski's lawyers
assert is new medical evidence that should result in a new trial. .................
In
November 2011, a jury convicted Melissa Calusinski — a Barrington High
School graduate and former day care worker — of murder in the death of
16-month-old Benjamin Kingan. The toddler died after an ambulance rushed
him from the Minee Subee day care facility in Lincolnshire to Advocate
Condell Medical Center in Libertyville Jan. 14, 2009, officials said. In
an interview with police after Benjamin's death, Melissa Calusinski
initially denied that she hurt the boy, but later confessed to throwing
him on the floor and demonstrated what happened, officials said. The day
care center had no surveillance cameras, and Melissa Calusinski was the
only employee in the room when Benjamin lost consciousness, according
to authorities. In August 2013, Eupil Choi, the pathologist who
performed the autopsy, said in a sworn affidavit the boy "had suffered
an old injury that predated January 14, 2009." Choi said he had "missed"
the injury, according to the affidavit. Lake County State's Attorney Michael Nerheim has said Choi told him
the finding has not changed his conclusion that the toddler died of a
traumatic injury the day of his death. On Tuesday, Nerheim reaffirmed
Choi said his opinion still is that the child died of a "catastrophic
injury that day." The defense also has highlighted a sworn
statement from Dr. Nancy Jones, a forensic pathologist and the former
chief medical examiner for Cook County, who said she reviewed the case
and concluded the evidence indicated the boy died of pre-existing
injuries and Melissa Calusinski's confession doesn't fit with her
medical findings. On June 10, 2015, a set of X-rays that allegedly
were never turned over to defense attorneys before or during the trial
were discovered at the Lake County Coroner's Office. Defense attorneys
said they include a skull X-ray that revealed Benjamin's head was not
shaped normally and had a preexisting condition or previous injury. In
July of 2015, Lake County Coroner Thomas Rudd, citing the new medical
evidence, changed Benjamin's cause of death of from homicide to
"undetermined." Choi and Jones are both expected to testify at the evidentiary hearings.........http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/lake-county-news-sun/crime/ct-lns-day-care-murder-hearing-set-st-0713-20160712-story.html
See lawyer Kathleen T. Zellner's reference to her client Melissa Calusinski's case on her law office's web page: Case overview: Calusinski was found guilty in November 2011 of the first-degree murder in the January 2009 death of 16-month-old Benjamin Kingan, who was from Deerfield. She was sentenced to 31 years in prison and has been incarcerated for six years. “(Calusinski), who has no history of violence and had absolutely no motive to harm Ben, was convicted based on irrefutably false medical evidence offered by the state’s testifying experts,” according to the motion filed by Calusinski’s attorney, Kathleen Zellner. Press:
See Wikipedia entry on lawyer Kathleen T. Zellner: "Kathleen Zellner (née Thomas) is an American lawyer based near Chicago, Illinois, who has a private practice. She is known for gaining the exoneration and release of 17 men in wrongful conviction cases. In January 2016 she announced she was taking on the defense of Steven Avery, working with Tricia Bushnell, legal director of the Midwest Innocence Project. Avery was convicted in 2007 of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in Wisconsin. His case was the subject of a 10-episode documentary series, Making a Murderer (2015), shown on Netflix."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Zellner
