Chicago City Wire

In a ruling that could set a frightening precedent for prosecutors, Lake County Judge Daniel Shanes is expected to decide on criminal charges against former Cook County assistant state’s attorneys Nick Trutenko and Andrew Horvat by mid-January.

A guilty verdict on all or any of the 14 counts against the two would effectively create new law, and “put a target on the back of every Assistant State's Attorney nationwide,” said one legal expert following the case.

“Perhaps not so coincidentally, it would also open up another revenue stream in the already lucrative exoneration business of suing governmental agencies employing police officers and state's attorneys,” the expert, who asked not to be identified, said.

Judge Shanes – presiding due to a conflict in Cook County – heard closing arguments in the case on December 4, with defense attorneys asking the judge to dismiss all charges.

“I can’t think of a case I’ve defended which bothers me more than this case,” said Terry Ekl, the attorney representing Horvat, during closing arguments. “I do not believe this is a good-faith prosecution and do not make that comment lightly.”

The charges spread between the two stem from the 2020 third trial of twice-convicted cop killer Jackie Wilson. Trutenko, who led the prosecution in Wilson’s 1989 second trial where Wilson was again found guilty, was called as a witness in the 2020 trial. Horvat was assigned by the State’s Attorney’s office to represent Trutenko during the 2020 trial.

On the stand, Trutenko was set up for a perjury trap, according to Chicago crime writer, Martin Preib, when attorney Elliot Slosar of the plaintiffs firm of Loevy & Loevy pressed Trutenko on a friendship he had with a prison witness, William Coleman, who testified against Wilson in his 1989 trial. Rather than fall for the trap, Trutenko admitted the friendship, pointing out that it began years after the trial ended, and while he was in private practice, and was therefore irrelevant to the case. Nonetheless, special prosecutors assigned to the case quickly dropped all charges against Jackie Wilson.

In his column “Crooked City,” Preib recounted a later exchange between Slosar and defense attorney Jim McKay who cross examined Slosar during Trutenko’s criminal trial.

McKay “suggested Slosar violated the rules of evidence when he didn’t turn over to special prosecutors a crucial baptismal certificate showing that Trutenko was godfather to Coleman’s daughter,” Preib wrote. “McKay’s line of questioning implied that Slosar kept this evidence from prosecutors in the hopes of a big ‘aha’ moment when the document was revealed in court—a moment that Slosar assumed would have compelled Trutenko to lie about his relationship to Coleman in an effort to protect the special prosecutors from their errant claims that Coleman could not be located.”

Preib added that “Trutenko didn’t lie on the stand about knowing Coleman. In fact, he admitted an email exchange a few days before the trial, but the unearthing of the certificate was enough for the humiliated special prosecutors who said Coleman might be deceased to suddenly drop charges against Wilson and set him free, prohibited from being charged again.”

Nonetheless, Trutenko and Horvat were hit with the charges in March 2023, charges that include perjury, obstruction of justice, violations of the local records act, and official misconduct.

“The prosecution of Trutenko and Horvat is premised in large part on several novel and creative legal theories proposed by private attorneys, temporarily anointed as Special Prosecutors, which have never been relied on before, or even seen in the history of Illinois jurisprudence,” the legal expert said.