Gearing Up For Drew Peterson's Big Week: Court Supervision

On Tuesday, the attorneys for Drew Peterson will make a final push to keep him out of prison by securing a new murder trial.

Will County Judge Edward Burmila has set aside two days for the hearing, but some involved predict it will last much longer. If, at the conclusion of the hearing, Judge Burmila decides against calling for a new trial, he plans to head straight for sentencing.

During the week that just ended, Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow took steps to avoid having to testify at Peterson's hearing. Glasgow filed court papers claiming that, as a prosecutor, special steps must be taken to force him to testify. He maintains Peterson's attorneys have failed to take those steps.

That is just one of many issues to be addressed at the hearing. Check back Tuesday to see how things play out.

Here's what else happened in the area's courthouses last week:

• In Bridgeview, Oak Lawn Doctor Rajat Prakash, 47, appeared before Judge Colleen Ann Hyland and was told she would decide on March 12 whether a pending misdemeanor battery charge can be used by prosecutors to bolster the felony sex abuse case he faces.
• In Will County, Richard Harris, 35, of Joliet got 14 years in prison for beating his 2-year-old stepdaughter.
• An arena football player on the team coached by Bears great and Romeoville mayoral hopeful Steve "Mongo" McMichael sued Megaplex in Homer Glen, blaming the fitness facility for a knee injury he suffered in 2011.
• A young man accused of compiling a collection of Youtube videos of himself taunting the Orland Park cops while shooting around town on a dirt bike showed up at the Bridgeview courthouse and said he needs a new lawyer. The attorney who had been defending Justin Jachimiec, 22, was disqualified after it turned out he was representing one of the state’s key witnesses in an unrelated case.
• A sex offender already doing 10 years in Big Muddy River Correctional Center was charged with sexually abusing a youth in 2007 in Joliet. Jerry Lockhart, 24, was arraigned before Will County Judge Robert Livas.
• Prosecutors at the Joliet courthouse filed court papers in connection with last month's double murder on Hickory Street. The filing says prosecutors have video of Bethany McKee heading over to Interstate 80 to help the authorities look for her missing cell phone.

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