Crime & Safety

Judge Will Rule on Bid to Make Patch Editor Testify About Sources

A Will County judge said he will decide within the week whether to compel a Patch editor to testify about how he obtained police reports on the shocking Nightmare on Hickory Street double murder.

Judge Gerald Kinney said he will render a written decision on the matter within the next seven days.

Attorney Neil Patel, who represents 19-year-old Bethany McKee of Shorewood, is trying to divest Patch Editor Joseph Hosey of his reporter's privilege in order to force him to reveal the source of the police reports.

McKee, along with Adam Landerman, 20, and Alisa Massaro, 19, and Joshua Miner, 25, were charged with the murders of Terrance Rankins and Eric Glover, both 22.

After luring Rankins and Glover to Massaro’s home on Hickory Street, Miner and Landerman strangled the two men to death, according to police reports obtained exclusively by Patch. After the killings, Massaro and Miner had sex atop the dead men’s bodies, the reports said. The four then concocted a plan to dismember the corpses of their victims and began procuring supplies, including a blowtorch, to carry out the plan. Miner reportedly intended to keep the dead men’s teeth as trophies.

"I'm not going to argue that he wasn't acting in a newsman capacity. That's not the issue," Patel said Wednesday in court. He said the issue was to determine who leaked the reports.

He conceded that stripping away Hosey's privilege would have a "chilling effect" with regard to freedom of the press, but noted this chilling effect might serve to discourage others from leaking information to the media.

Patel claims that the stories violated McKee's right to a fair trial. He also said that if the reports were provided by one of the more than 500 police officers, prosecutors, defense lawyers and others who signed affidavits stating otherwise, the person is guilty of perjury.

Judge Kinney produced case law stemming from the Charles Manson murder.

The attorney for Patch, Ken Schmetterer, said Patel's request to force Hosey to reveal his source was "unprecedented."

Read how other news media covered the hearing involving Patch at SunTimes.com


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