DeKalb County judge sets June trial for Nathan Sweeney charged in DUI deputy death

SYCAMORE – A judge on Thursday set a June date for a jury trial which could determine the fate of a DeKalb man charged with driving under the influence of drugs and causing a crash that killed a DeKalb County sheriff’s deputy in March 2024.

The criminal trial for Nathan P. Sweeney, 44, is expected to convene at 10 a.m. June 23, according to Circuit Court Marcy Buick’s Thursday ruling.

John Kopp, Sweeney’s defense lawyer, also has requested that the jury trial take place outside of DeKalb County. Kopp has once before also appealed to the judge for a chance in venue, arguing that Sweeney won’t get a fair trial if his proceedings contiue in the same county that Deputy Christina Musil served in at the time of her death.

“Today we are filing a venue motion for change of place of trial in DeKalb County, a motion to suppress evidence and a motion for a bill of particulars,” Kopp said to Buick Thursday.

Musil, 35, was a mother of three, an Afghanistan army veteran and had worked at the sheriff’s office for 5 years before her death. She was killed while on duty March 28, 2024.

Buick has not ruled on Kopp’s motions. She’s expected to hear arguments and considerations on the appeals at Sweeney’s next hearing, set for 10 a.m. Feb. 8.

Lead prosecutor Scott Schwertley said he asked Kopp if he would agree to setting a jury trial date. Schwertley also said he expects to have responses ready by mid-February in reply to Kopp’s requests.

“That would give us plenty of time to have hearings on those motions prior to that jury trial but at least we would have a jury trial date set,” Schwertley said.

Kopp said he agreed to that schedule. Final pretrial status hearing is set for June 17 at 1:30 p.m., Buick ruled.

Prosecutors won’t seek to detain Sweeney again amid Kane County court controversy

Sweeney’s driving and substance abuse history has come under fire recently after Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias said announced calls for a federal investigation into Kane County court records.

Giannoulias alleged that Kane County courts did not properly report Sweeney’s 2020 DUI conviction as required by law. If his conviction had been reported to the state office, Sweeney’s driver’s and CDL licenses would have been revoked, Giannoulias said.

Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser has argued her office did not err in it’s handling of Sweeney’s previous case.

When asked in December by Shaw Local whether his office would try again to seek Sweeney’s detainment pending trial, newly-elected DeKalb County State’s Attorney Riley Oncken said no.

In his statement to Shaw Local, Oncken said his office wouldn’t try again to detain Sweeney in light of the Kane County court case because Buick, the judge who ordered his release after the crash that killed Musil, already knew about the 2020 DUI conviction.

DeKalb County court records show prosecutor Scott Schwertley mentioned Sweeney’s former DUI conviction in an April 2024 hearing. Prosecutors, under former state’s attorney Rick Amato, had asked Buick to order Sweeney be held in jail pending court proceedings. They argued releasing him would endanger the public due to his history of substance abuse and driving records.

In an April 5 hearing while arguing for Sweeney’s detention, Schwertley also brought up a former DUI conviction in Kane County in front of a packed courtroom.

“He also pleaded guilty to DUI under the influence of drugs,” Schwertley said in the April 5, 2024, hearing. “There was an agreement at that time that the plea would be withdrawn...however that doesn’t mean he did not admit to DUI.”

Schwertley mentioned Sweeney’s background again in an April 15, 2024, DeKalb County court filing, records show.

“[T]his defendant has prior convictions for driving while his license was suspended or revoked,” Schwertley wrote in the filing to Buick. “Also the defendant here has a prior 2020 DUI, where he plead guilty and was placed on some form of diversion/State’s Attorney supervision where upon completing certain things such as counseling and probation the case was dismissed.”

in April 2024, Schwertley also argued that Sweeney’s history of drug abuse made him liable and a greater risk to the public if released. At the time of the fatal crash that killed Musil, Sweeney had fentanyl and morphine, two opioids, in his system, according to toxicology reports cited by prosecutors in the court filing.

“The randomness of this tragedy also makes this defendant so dangerous,” Schwertley wrote. “Court ordered drug tests will not mitigate the threat.”

According to court records, Sweeney has a prescription dating back to 2020 for buprenorphine-naxolene, which Schwertley said is used to treat opioid dependency or addiction.

Court records also allege that Sweeney was driving at 71 mph and did not apply the brakes on his commercial Kenworth truck until after the fatal crash. His truck rear-ended Musil’s squad car so severely that the back end of her vehicle was pushed forward into the front part of the SUV, according to court records.

In her April 2024 ruling which released Sweeney pending trial, Buick said that Sweeney’s release did pose a risk to the DeKalb County community. She affirmed, however, that conditions she set for his release would mitigate that threat. He is not allowed to drive or consume alcohol or non-prescribed drugs as he awaits trial. Buick also cited the SAFE-T Act at the time of her April 2024 ruling.