Waiting For Justice

(From the Janesville Messenger, 4-5-09)


“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial....”
- The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution

Unfortunately, the Sixth Amendment does not extend the right to a speedy trial to a crime victim’s family.
Nine months ago, I wrote in this space about my wife’s cousin, a 24-year-old Chicago artist who went by the name of SOLVE. On June 14, SOLVE was senselessly stabbed to death by someone with whom he had exchanged words at a party.
A suspect in the murder, 24-year-old Kirk Tobolski, was apprehended and charged with first-degree homicide the following day.
According to police reports, four witnesses identified Tobolski as the killer, and Tobolski himself made a statement to police that he had “slashed” SOLVE with a knife. Despite this, Tobolski has been free on bail since October 28. Incredibly, since February, Tobolski – who still faces the first-degree murder charges – has been allowed to leave Illinois unwatched to visit his pregnant girlfriend in Michigan. The only requirement is that he must appear back in court for his next hearing.
How would you feel, knowing that your child’s alleged murderer is allowed to roam freely, greatly increasing the chance that he will try to flee? SOLVE’s father says he feels like he’s “been imprisoned in a theater of the absurd, though without any comic relief.”
How did this happen? How did Cook County, Illinois – that bastion of justice and fair government – give someone indicted on two counts of murder such unlimited freedom?
Money, that’s how.
To the surprise of SOLVE’s family, on October 28, somebody came up with the $50,000 cash necessary to spring Tobolski from his jail cell. SOLVE’s father believes that Tobolski’s family sold their home in order to raise the cash.
Wherever the money came from, there is apparently a lot more available. Tobolski is now being represented by defense attorney Richard Beuke, a big shot who has been involved in several high-profile cases in Cook County. Currently, Beuke is also defending Jon Burge, a retired police commander facing federal charges related to police brutality and alleged torture of suspects. The Burge case is big news in Chicago; his court appearances routinely draw scores of demonstrators.
SOLVE’s father, who is an attorney himself, believes that Beuke, as long as he's being paid, will undoubtedly drag the case out as long as he can. He says that “if there is a trial, which is likely, it is unlikely it will start before late 2010, more than two years after [the murder].”
Although Tobolski is allowed to go to Michigan, his release on bail did contain other stipulations, including no contact with SOLVE’s family, with the witnesses or the witnesses’ friends and relatives. At the first status hearing after receiving permission to leave Chicago, Tobolski did appear, buying himself another four weeks of relative freedom. The next status hearing is scheduled for April.
“The way things go in the Cook County Criminal Court in proceedings involving serious crimes,” says SOLVE’s father, “the judge will for up to 3 years invariably grant a request for more time if either side makes such a request at a status hearing. Swift justice in serious crimes is not a hallmark of Cook County's criminal justice system.”
So SOLVE’s family waits, disgusted at what they see as a gross miscarriage of justice and common sense. Until SOLVE’s killer is behind bars, there can be no closure for this terrible, senseless tragedy.