Statements made by Robert Crimo III on the night of the Highland Park July 4 parade mass shooting should be barred at trial because an attorney was not given access to Crimo, his defense lawyers argued Wednesday.
Prosecutors countered that Crimo voluntarily agreed to talk.
Police informed Crimo, who is accused of killing seven people and wounding dozens of others at the July 4, 2022 parade, that an attorney was in the police station lobby. Crimo, though, was not told by police that the lawyer had been hired by his father, his public defenders said at a Lake County Court hearing.
That omission violated Crimo’s rights, Assistant Public Defender Gregory Ticsay argued.
“Whan a retained attorney is not given access, that violated (Crimo’s) due-process rights, period,” Ticsay told Judge Victoria Rossetti. He said the judge should bar any statements made after the attorney arrived at the Highland Park Police Station.
The judge said she would take the matter under advisement, and would issue a written ruling. She set Dec. 18 as the next pre-trial hearing date.
Ticsay said Crimo’s father had retained the attorney as authorities searched his residence in the hours after the mass shooting, and then asked the lawyer to provide counsel to Crimo III.
Crimo had been answering questions for about 90 minutes when the lawyer arrived. A Highland Park detective interviewing Crimo that night told him that a lawyer was in the lobby, but Crimo said he wanted to keep talking with police, prosecutors said.
Crimo spoke several more hours that night, and the lawyer left the station without getting a chance to talk with him, according to testimony at the hearing.
Prosecutors showed snippets of video from the interrogation in court, including when the officer asked Crimo several times during the course of the night if he wanted counsel or if he wished to make a phone call. Crimo declined each time.
Assistant State’s Attorney Jeff Facklam said Crimo voluntarily decided to not speak with the lawyer.
“It’s the defendant’s decision to waive those rights,” Facklam told the judge. “It’s not up to a third party.”
In a separate matter argued Thursday, prosecutors asked the judge to allow a police officer to testify at trial that a subject shown in security video from the day of the shootings was, in fact, Crimo. They showed video of someone accessing a ramp before the shots were fired from atop a downtown building, and then leaving about 10 minutes later.
Highland Park police Sgt. Brian Soldano testified that he believed the person in the video was Crimo. He said he based his testimony on a number of interactions he had with Crimo when he served as a school resource officer years before. The defense team asked to bar the testimony, and the judge said she would issue a written ruling.
Crimo is scheduled to stand trial on dozens of counts of first-degree murder and other assault charges in February.
