Chicago City Wire

A Lake County judge who in February acquitted two former Assistant State’s Attorneys in Cook County of criminal charges came down hard on a defense attorney in the case, potentially setting him up for disciplinary action.

In his acquittal order, Judge Daniel Shanes wrote that attorney Elliot Slosar, with the plaintiffs firm of Loevy & Loevy, “deliberately withheld evidence” during a 2020 murder trial of twice convicted cop killer Jackie Wilson—the trial that led to criminal charges against the two former Assistant State’s Attorneys, Nick Trutenko and Andrew Horvat.

Judge Shane's charge is a serious one, one legal expert told Chicago City Wire, and under the Himmel Doctrine—a rule that requires attorneys to report misconduct—every attorney associated with the Trutenko/Horvat case could be obligated to report Slosar to the Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission (ARDC).

“Defense attorneys have a lot more leeway than prosecutors when it comes to how they treat evidence, but a defense attorney under a discovery order is required to turn over evidence,” the expert said.

Jim McKay, Trutenko's attorney in the case before Judge Shanes, told Chicago City Wire that he wasn’t aware of anything being filed against Slosar but that he believed complaints would be filed.

The evidence surrounds a baptismal certificate showing that Trutenko was godfather to a jailhouse informant, William Coleman, whom the prosecution used as witness in Wilson’s 1989 trial. 

Slosar asked Trutenko about the friendship—that began years after the trial when Trutenko was in private practice—in the 2020 Wilson trial but failed to turn the evidence over to special prosecutors beforehand.

“Despite earlier orders requiring both the Wilson prosecution and defense to exchange discovery, Slosar did not provide the baptismal certificate to Rosen or O’Rourke [special prosecutors] before the trial,” Judge Shanes wrote.

A call to Judge Shanes’ chambers asking whether he referred the Slosar case to the ARDC was not returned.

An email to Slosar seeking comment was not returned to Chicago City Wire. 

Steven Splitt, a spokesman for ARDC, said the office could “neither confirm nor deny” if or when an attorney is under investigation.

The ARDC receives approximately 3500 grievances a year, Splitt said, and of those approximately 75 become formal complaints.

Judge Shanes' February 19 order acquitted Trutenko and Horvat on all 14 counts. If found guilty, the case could have set legal precedence by potentially making prosecutors all over the country vulnerable to a range of criminal charges.

In his “Crooked City” column published on Substack, former FOP spokesman Martin Preib wrote that the case could have had long-term disastrous consequences.  

“Imagine if the case against Trutenko and Horvat took shape in a courtroom ruled by one of the many activist judges in Cook County and they were found guilty. An avalanche of similar cases would emerge against these prosecutors and their colleagues, a legal bloodbath no doubt dear to the malevolent hearts of Chicago’s radical left. Does allegedly reform-minded top prosecutor Eileen O’Neill Burke recognize the significance of the criminal case against Trutenko and Horvat? Does she see how close all prosecutors came to being targeted by the exoneration movement? Will she aggressively protect her staff in future legal campaigns against prosecutors?”