Judge rules on media coverage in Plainfield Township murder, hate crime case

A Will County judge will only allow still photography in the courtroom in a Plainfield Township murder and hate crime but that may change if the case is assigned to another judge.

On Friday, Dave Carlson, the presiding judge of the felony division at the Will County Courthouse, made a ruling on media coverage of the case against Joseph Czuba, 71, who’s charged with first-degree murder in the death of 6-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume and attempted murder of the child’s mother, Hanaan Shahin, 32, on Oct. 14.

Carlson ruled that the media could take photos of Czuba at his arraignment on Monday but no audio or video recordings. But Carlson may assign the case to one of the other judges in the felony division and they may decide to set new restrictions on media coverage.

Will County Assistant State’s Attorney Chris Koch deferred to Czuba’s lawyers on whether he would accept media coverage of the case, such as pictures, videos and audio recordings.

Czuba’s attorney, George Lenard, in turn, deferred to Carlson but he wanted him to carefully consider how that could affect the case and a jury for a potential jury trial.

Lenard said he appreciates the freedom of the press under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution but he also asked Carlson to consider his client’s constitutional right to an impartial jury and due process.

Lenard said Czuba’s case is a “high media case.”

“The media is what makes the case high profile,” Lenard said.

Lenard told Carlson that even U.S. President Joe Biden made a statement about the case and members of the victim’s family have spoken to the White House. That meant almost everyone knows about the case, he said.

Lenard suspected that 80% of the jurors will say they heard about the case while the other 20% will try to say they haven’t heard of it in order to sit on the jury.

Lenard said he was concerned about how even allowing pictures of witnesses could affect the case. He said it may “chill the way that they may testify.”

Koch noted that the Illinois Supreme Court allows witnesses to object to media coverage.

Lenard said there’s also been “buzz words” and “attention getters” in the media coverage such as allegation that Czuba committed a hate crime and stabbed Wadea 26 times.

Lenard was also concerned about televised coverage of the case.

“It could cause a problem to the point where [Czuba] may not receive a fair trial and the jury may not be impartial,” Lenard said.

Lenard was also concerned about media coverage leading to instances of grandstanding, although he said he was sure Czuba’s attorneys and prosecutors would not engage in grandstanding.

Carlson said told the attorneys to use “extreme caution” when making comments to the public outside the courtroom.

“What you say in open court in is one thing,” Carlson said.