Chester Weger Mini-Trial: Judge sets limits to evidence talk on podcast in Starved Rock Murders case

Chester Weger still is set for what attorneys termed a “mini-trial” – a chance to prove he didn’t commit the Starved Rock murders – but Weger’s judge set limits on what evidence can be disclosed before trial.

Monday, attorneys appeared for an emergency hearing in La Salle County Circuit Court. At issue was whether Weger attorney Andy Hale broke Illinois Supreme Court rules when he disclosed, on his podcast, evidence that could be litigated when the Weger case is re-litigated on May 12.

One of the disputed disclosures is a recorded interview between the special prosecutor’s office and Louis Goetsch, a former justice of the peace – 94 years old at the time of the taped interview – who signed the warrant for Weger’s arrest.

Hale played a roughly 10-minute segment of that interview in a podcast dated Feb. 27. In that interview, Goetsch said he’d never signed an arrest warrant before – “That was the first time” – and he wasn’t sure why authorities asked him to do so.

“I know all the other judges were mad about it,” Goetsch told his interviewers.

(Goetsch also acknowledged telling Weger, whom he ran into while grocery shopping, that he believed Weger was innocent.)

Ordinarily, releasing evidence to the public ahead of trial is a no-no. The Illinois Supreme Court restricts attorneys from talking about pending cases.

Colleen Griffin of the special prosecutor’s office said Monday those rules should apply in Weger’s case. She asked Judge Michael C. Jansz to make Hale stop releasing evidence on his podcast and asked for sanctions, or penalties. She had, however, no objection to Hale continuing his podcast.

“If we had that concern we would have brought it up four years ago when this case began,” Griffin said.

Weger attorney Sally Cohen said the Supreme Court rules cited apply only to pre-trial matters – not to post-conviction matters – and that Hale, in his role as a broadcaster, is entitled to protections under the First Amendment.

Cohen also said their research showed no precedent cases in which the rules apply to a case like Weger’s pending matter.

Jansz agreed this is “uncharted territory” and ruled there had been no disclosure violation to date. He declined to impose sanctions.

“Having said that, they (the rules) will apply from now on,” Jansz said. He ordered the Supreme Court rules will apply going forward.

Weger spent nearly six decades in prison for the murder of Lillian Oetting, one of three women fatally bludgeoned in 1960 at Starved Rock State Park. Weger confessed to the three killings but recanted and has since tried to overturn his conviction.

Weger’s lawyers successfully argued for a kind of do-over hearing scheduled May 12-14.