No Special Prosecutor, Hearing in Hickory St. Murder Case, Judge Says

A series of stories about the Nightmare on Hickory Street double murder published exclusively by Patch revealed so many disturbing details that a defense attorney wants a special prosecutor appointed and a special hearing held to "determine who the culprit is here."

But defense lawyer Chuck Bretz is getting neither of those things—at least for now.

Will County Judge Gerald Kinney said Wednesday that he may revisit the issue of a special evidentiary hearing but that he isn't going to order one yet. Bretz and the other attorneys representing two young men and two young women charged with brutal murders of Terrance Rankins and Eric Glover, both 22, backed off on their request for a special prosecutor.

The defense attorneys for Adam Landerman, 19, Alisa Massaro, 19, Bethany McKee, 18, and Joshua Miner, 24, agreed to wait until detailed affidavits are returned from all the lawyers involved in the case, as well as from a representative of the Joliet Police Department. The lawyers and police representative are to swear in the affidavits whether or not they learned who provided police reports to Patch, and if so, who did it.

Bretz said he believes the reports were provided by someone from the Joliet police, and that he bases this assumption on a conversation he had with First Assistant State's Attorney Ken Grey.

"I like Ken Grey, I think he's an honorable guy," Bretz said. "I don't know why he's taking the position he's taking. I'm not trying to throw him under the bus."

Besides claiming Grey blamed the cops for the leak, Bretz also took exception to statements made by Joliet Police Chief Mike Trafton, who was quoted in Patch as saying the double murder was "."

"It is the worst thing I've come across in my career," Trafton said.

The inflammatory statement from Trafton, compounded by details revealed in later Patch stories, including that Miner and Massaro told police they had sex on top of Glover and Rankins' bodies after the killings, damage the chances of the accused to get a fair trial, Bretz said.

Assistant State's Attorney Marie Czech said her own office went to great lengths to keep the reports confidential, and that the police department had been just as diligent. Trafton even placed Landerman's police sergeant mother, Julie Landerman, on administrative leave after her son was linked to the murders and police brass built a "Chinese wall" around the gruesome reports, Czech said.

Bretz said these measures were not enough and that "we need to go just a little deeper than that."

While Judge Kinney for the moment has denied both the special hearing and special prosecutor, he also upheld a gag order forbidding attorneys involved in the case from speaking with the press about the murders. Joliet police personnel were included in this order as well.

Kinney also decided to keep the case file sealed but indicated a willingness to, at some point, reopen at least portions of it.

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