Lake County coroner calls for reinvestigation of day care death
The Lake County coroner is calling into question a predecessor's work, and saying one of the most horrifying murders in the county's history may have actually been an accident.
Thomas Rudd, who took office in November 2012, is urging Lake County State's Attorney Mike Nerheim to reopen that office's investigation of Melissa Calusinski, who was convicted of murdering 16-month-old Benjamin Kingan in 2011.
On Tuesday, Rudd lambasted the boy's autopsy and the work of Eupil Choi, the forensic pathologist who performed it.
"He was 100 percent wrong," Rudd said of Choi's findings. "This whole thing is a miscarriage of justice."
Rudd made similar comments to CBS News, which aired a special on the case during a broadcast Saturday of "48 Hours."
Now that an old, adjudicated case has come to new, national attention, Nerheim has questioned Rudd's decision to get involved.
"His interest is in his own personal gain, rather than being objective," Nerheim said Wednesday.
Most of the facts are not in dispute: On Jan. 14, 2009, Benjamin passed out at Minnee Subee in the Park, a Lincolnshire day care center. An ambulance rushed him to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, where he died of head trauma.
Calusinski, 22 at the time, had been working at Minee Subee, and was in the room when Benjamin lost consciousness. Authorities interviewed her for hours before arresting her. Interrogation room camera footage shows Calusinski, after hours of steady denials, confessing to throwing the boy onto the floor, and demonstrating how she did it.
A jury convicted the Barrington High School graduate in November 2011, and she began serving a 31-year sentence.
Complications followed. Minee Subee's owner, Judith Katz, was arrested and charged with obstructing justice for allegedly instructing her employees to hide evidence from police. In 2012, before her trial was set to begin, Katz died at the age of 67.
During Calusinski's trial, the prosecution argued that Benjamin had suffered a fresh injury. Rudd said Tuesday that he had seen evidence indicating Benjamin suffered a head injury at Minee Subee six weeks before his death. That injury caused blood to pool up around his brain, creating what Rudd calls a "time bomb."
State law says a county's coroner cannot perform autopsies; that is a duty for contractors. Rudd said Choi, who has retired, "totally botched" Benjamin's autopsy.
"That is the last exam a person will have," Rudd said. "It is important for us to get it right."
Both Rudd and "48 Hours" noted that, in May 2013 — after Rudd's election — Choi signed an affidavit in which he cast doubt on his own autopsy. His work on the Kingan autopsy was contracted out by then-coroner Richard Keller, who, in an unrelated case, pleaded guilty to obstructing justice and delivering a controlled substance in 2011.
Artis Yancey took Keller's place, and Rudd defeated Yancey in the 2012 Democratic primary.
The Kingan family did not return calls for comment. In 2010, the family settled a wrongful death suit against Minee Subee for $2 million. Minee Subee never reopened after Benjamin's death, and the building has been a new day care under different management for years.
Rudd said a news release from Nerheim's office regarding Calusinski's case was "totally filled with half-lies, half-truths." The coroner beseeched him to give the Carpentersville woman's fate second thoughts.
"Why is he so scared?" Rudd said of Nerheim.
Nerheim said Wednesday he saw no grounds for questioning the trial's outcome. He noted that Rudd had not brought up any new evidence, and had only presented a new opinion about evidence that had already been analyzed by both his office and Calusinski's defense.
"There is no new evidence that the jury did not hear," Nerheim said.
rwachter@pioneerlocal.com
Thomas Rudd, who took office in November 2012, is urging Lake County State's Attorney Mike Nerheim to reopen that office's investigation of Melissa Calusinski, who was convicted of murdering 16-month-old Benjamin Kingan in 2011.
On Tuesday, Rudd lambasted the boy's autopsy and the work of Eupil Choi, the forensic pathologist who performed it.
"He was 100 percent wrong," Rudd said of Choi's findings. "This whole thing is a miscarriage of justice."
Rudd made similar comments to CBS News, which aired a special on the case during a broadcast Saturday of "48 Hours."
Now that an old, adjudicated case has come to new, national attention, Nerheim has questioned Rudd's decision to get involved.
"His interest is in his own personal gain, rather than being objective," Nerheim said Wednesday.
Calusinski, 22 at the time, had been working at Minee Subee, and was in the room when Benjamin lost consciousness. Authorities interviewed her for hours before arresting her. Interrogation room camera footage shows Calusinski, after hours of steady denials, confessing to throwing the boy onto the floor, and demonstrating how she did it.
A jury convicted the Barrington High School graduate in November 2011, and she began serving a 31-year sentence.
Complications followed. Minee Subee's owner, Judith Katz, was arrested and charged with obstructing justice for allegedly instructing her employees to hide evidence from police. In 2012, before her trial was set to begin, Katz died at the age of 67.
State law says a county's coroner cannot perform autopsies; that is a duty for contractors. Rudd said Choi, who has retired, "totally botched" Benjamin's autopsy.
"That is the last exam a person will have," Rudd said. "It is important for us to get it right."
Artis Yancey took Keller's place, and Rudd defeated Yancey in the 2012 Democratic primary.
The Kingan family did not return calls for comment. In 2010, the family settled a wrongful death suit against Minee Subee for $2 million. Minee Subee never reopened after Benjamin's death, and the building has been a new day care under different management for years.
Rudd said a news release from Nerheim's office regarding Calusinski's case was "totally filled with half-lies, half-truths." The coroner beseeched him to give the Carpentersville woman's fate second thoughts.
"Why is he so scared?" Rudd said of Nerheim.
Nerheim said Wednesday he saw no grounds for questioning the trial's outcome. He noted that Rudd had not brought up any new evidence, and had only presented a new opinion about evidence that had already been analyzed by both his office and Calusinski's defense.
"There is no new evidence that the jury did not hear," Nerheim said.
rwachter@pioneerlocal.com
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