Another continuance in Sarah Safranek case

OREGON – A 36-year-old woman who is accused of killing her son in 2021 refused to appear via video for a court hearing on Wednesday, prompting a continuance to April 26.

Sarah Safranek, 36, of Oregon was scheduled to appear via video conference from the Ogle County Correctional Center when court officials learned she was refusing to appear.

Safranek’s attorney, Ogle County Public Defender Kathleen Isley, and prosecutor, Ogle County State’s Attorney Mike Rock, were in the courtroom for the 1 p.m. pretrial hearing when Judge John Redington asked jail staff to have Safranek brought to the jail’s area where video conferencing is done.

“She is refusing,” the correctional officer said.

Redington asked Isley and Rock if they wanted him to order correctional staff to bring her to the hearing even if she was “unwilling’.

Both Isley and Rock declined with Rock adding he would use a continuance to respond to motions recently filed in the case.

“OK we will waive her presence for today. We will reset this for April 26 at 1 p.m. for further status and...we will try again,” Redington said.

Safranek has pleaded not guilty to five counts of first-degree murder and one count of aggravated battery for the suffocation death of her 7-year-old son, Nathaniel Burton, in February 2021.

On Nov. 3, 2022 Redington ruled Safranek fit to stand trial for the offenses after reviewing a mental health evaluation requested by the defense. The case was continued to February following another December hearing.

Nathaniel, a first-grade student at Oregon Elementary School, was found unresponsive and not breathing in his bed at his home in the 400 block of South 10th Street about 2:30 a.m. Feb. 17, 2021. He was pronounced dead at KSB Hospital in Dixon later that day.

An autopsy showed the boy also suffered a ruptured liver.

Safranek was arrested two months later, April 21, and indicted May 4, 2021. She pleaded not guilty May 6, 2021, and remains in the Ogle County Correctional Center on a $2 million bond.

She has appeared in court numerous times since her arrest sometimes in person and sometimes via video conferencing.

She faces 20 years to life in prison if convicted of murder and six to 30 years if convicted of aggravated battery.

According to records obtained by Shaw Local News Network in a Freedom of Information Act request, the Department of Children and Family Services had visited the Safranek/Burton household about a dozen times over two years, following up on five reports of suspected abuse and neglect.

Each time, DCFS closed the case after finding no indications of parental wrongdoing.

Nathaniel was 4 when the allegations first surfaced.