Homer Glen mother charged in daughter’s death has detention hearing delayed

Joliet — Alexa Balen, who’s accused of drug possession and child endangerment along with her fiancé, Edward Weiher, after their 2-year-old daughter died from suspected heroin exposure, has received a continuance on her detention hearing after failing to obtain counsel.

Balen, 27, of Homer Glen, appeared in a Will County Circuit Court on Wednesday before Judge Sarah Jones for a pretrial detention hearing, but she said she has not yet hired a lawyer.

Balen was arrested Nov. 18 after a hospital stay that began after the Nov. 6 death of her daughter, Trinity Balen-Weiher. She and Weiher, 49, were charged Nov. 7, but only Weiher was taken into custody that day.

Both parents have been charged with possession of cocaine, possession of heroin and two counts of endangerment of a child – one felony count for the incident that resulted in Trinity’s death and one Class A misdemeanor charge for the endangerment of Balen’s 6-year-old daughter from a previous relationship.

Balen’s request to be assigned an attorney from the public defender’s office was denied Tuesday because financial disclosure documents reveal that she, along with Weiher, is the owner of a $1 million home and has a bank account containing about $500,000. She also reported a monthly income of $1,800, according to court records.

Despite sharing the home with Balen and owning several cars collectively worth $400,000, Weiher was granted representation by a public defender.

When asked by Jones whether she had retained counsel, Balen replied that she hadn’t and said, “I no longer have that amount of money,” in reference to the information that had been provided to the court.

Jones dismissed her comments, saying “you have assets” before temporarily assigning her a public defender for the purpose of the hearing.

The public defender requested a continuance for the hearing until Friday, which Jones granted.

Before Balen was escorted out of the courtroom by Will County sheriff’s deputies, Jones reminded her once again that she needs to hire a lawyer.

Will County Assistant State’s Attorney Amanda Tasker has requested that Balen remain in pretrial detention on the grounds that she poses an immediate risk to the safety of her 6-year-old daughter, and because she is charged with felony endangerment of a child resulting in the death of a child.

According to the petition to deny pretrial release, when officers and paramedics were called to the couple’s Homer Glen home Nov. 6 to attend to the unresponsive Trinity, they discovered severely unsanitary conditions inside.

Officers observed “the entire floor was covered with garbage, food, urine and feces,” and “spread throughout countertops and tables was a clear white substance suspected to be cocaine and heroin” including in areas that were reachable by the children, according to court documents.

In the petition to deny pretrial release, the state’s attorney’s office noted that both Weiher and Balen confessed to regularly using heroin, and the information also was in Balen’s testimony about the events leading to her daughter’s death. Balen indicated that the 2-year-old had begun showing signs of overdosing almost four hours before she called 911, according to the petition.

When Balen and Weiher were taken in for questioning by Will County sheriff’s deputies, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services took custody of Balen’s 6-year-old daughter. She was taken to Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn for a medical examination, where fentanyl and cocaine were found in her system.

In the ruling to deny Weiher pretrial release, Judge Dan Rippy ordered Weiher to have no contact with the 6-year-old, even through a third party, according to court documents.

Rippy said Weiher posed a risk to the community as well.

Balen is being held in a medical unit at the Will County Adult Detention Facility, pending the continuance of her pretrial detention hearing. The reason for her hospitalization and medical unit detention have not been publicly disclosed.