Opinion ID: 2252960
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Reliability of Dugan's Statements

Text: Concluding that these statements were not against Brian Dugan's penal interest would end the analysis. However, even if one were to agree with the plurality that the statements were somehow against his penal interest, the statements are not accompanied by sufficient indicia of reliability to bring them within the hearsay exception. Indeed, an examination of the facts establishes that Brian Dugan wove a fabric of lies at every stage of his Nicarico fantasy. The plurality correctly points out that this court will not undergo a de novo review of evidentiary considerations, instead deferring to a trial court's discretion. However, our general deference to trial court determinations does not put the issue beyond the reach of this court. When a decision is so completely at odds with the facts, this court may take notice and act accordingly. The trial judge's determination in this case is one such decision. The trial judge did not articulate which factors he felt indicated that Dugan's statements were reliable. Instead, he made a general ruling that, without highlighting specific facts; in other words, based on the totality of the facts, it is the decision of this Court that there are sufficient corroborating circumstances that allow the statements of Brian Dugan to be permitted during the trials of defendants. The plurality identifies the following aspects as indicative of reliability: Dugan's general description of the Nicarico house; the drive around during which Dugan was eventually able to find the Nicarico house and the Prairie Path; that Dugan missed work on the day of the murder; a shoeprint on the front of the Nicarico door which was consistent with one of Dugan's variations of the day's events; that Dugan was able to describe the cloth tape used to wrap Jeanine's head; that Dugan's repossessed car was missing a tire jack; that two utility workers saw someone who looked like Dugan driving a car at the time and near the scene of the murder; and that a woman who worked in a church near the Nicarico home claimed she saw Dugan in her office on the day of the murder. An examination of each of these factors shows that, far from being corroborative, most actually contradict Dugan's testimony, while many others tend to cast doubt on the statements. Taken together, they cannot reasonably be described as lending any sort of reliability to Dugan's statements. The trial court's conclusion to the contrary was an abuse of discretion. The first corroborating factor cited by the plurality is that Dugan's description of the Nicarico house was generally accurate. (162 Ill.2d at 336, 205 Ill.Dec. at 356, 643 N.E.2d at 647.) It states: Dugan's description of the home's floor plan was accurate (stairs near front door, leading to below-ground recreation room; nearby stairs leading to upstairs bedrooms; wooden railing on stairs). Dugan was also able to describe certain features of the Nicarico home: he recounted correctly that there was a brown dresser in Jeanine's bedroom; that there was beigecolored carpeting in the lower recreation room and on the stairs leading down to the room; that the entry way flooring was parquet-like; that the television in the lower recreation room was set apart from other furnishings in the room; that colors in the home were light; that certain doors opened in particular directions; that the bed on which he threw the victim was unmade. (Jeanine's sister testified that she had not made the bed that morning, but had simply covered it with a spread.) 162 Ill.2d at 337, 205 Ill.Dec. at 356-357, 643 N.E.2d at 647-648. However, most of Dugan's generally accurate descriptions are misstated by the plurality. For instance, Dugan was incorrect about the location of the stairways in the house, the color of the carpeting in the rec room, and the location of the television in the rec room. As for his description of the house's colors, Dugan said more than just that the colors in the home were light; he said that there were no dark colors in the house at all. However, the rec room, where the initial abduction supposedly took place, had dark wood paneling and a dark multicolored rug, and would generally be defined as dark-colored. Finally, Dugan's indication that there was one railing along one of the stairways was inaccurate, since there were two railings along both stairways. It is true that Dugan described a brown dresser in Jeanine's bedroom (hardly an unusual color for a dresser or an unusual place for a dresser to be), that he knew that the bedroom was upstairs (hardly an unusual place for a bedroom to be), and that his claim that the bed was unmade could be resolved in his favor, since there was conflicting testimony. (Jeanine's mother testified that the bed was made.) This last piece of knowledge is unremarkable, as beds are generally unmade when one spends the day sick in them. The best that can be said about Dugan's statements is that his more general descriptions fit the Nicarico house, as well as the prototypical two-story house. When pressed for specifics, however, Dugan's descriptions are wildly inaccurate. Dugan claimed that when he approached the house, he noticed a wrought iron fence or railing along the walkway in front of the house. There was nothing of the kind. After talking with Jeanine through the door, Dugan claimed, he kicked the door in, one time saying that he used two kicks. When he gave this version of the day's events, he claimed that the second kick was necessary to break through the chain lock. However, there was no chain lock on the Nicarico door. Upon entering, Dugan claimed, he saw closet doors in the front hall. There are no closet doors in the front hall. Dugan claimed that he then ran after Jeanine, who had run into the rec room. As previously indicated, the plurality cites his description of the rec room as corroborating; however, it is nothing of the sort. Dugan described patio doors in the rec room, implying that it was on the main level. The Nicarico rec room, being below ground, could not have had patio doors. Anyone who had actually been in the rec room would know that patio doors are an impossibility. Dugan also stated that there were no dark colors inside the house, only light colors. However, the rec room had dark grain wood paneling. Dugan said that the rec room's carpet was beige; however, the Nicarico rec room had a multi-colored rug. The plurality also cites Dugan's description of the television set in the rec room as corroborating. Dugan described a console television in the center of the rec room. In fact, the Nicaricos had a portable television on a TV stand in the corner of the room. Far from corroborating his story, this statement only shows that Dugan correctly guessed that there was a television in the rec room. When pressed for a description or a location, he took a shot in the dark and missed completely. Dugan then claimed to have taken Jeanine upstairs to her bedroom. However, when pressed to describe the floor plan of the house, he could not correctly place the location of either the stairs leading up or the stairs leading down. When asked to describe the stairs, he said that one of the stairways had a wooden railing. In fact, both stairways had two wooden railings. Upon arriving upstairs, Dugan claimed to have thrown Jeanine upon the bed, implying that he thought there was only one bed in the room. There were actually two beds in the room. He stated that there was a small nightstand between the bed and the bedroom door. There was no such nightstand. In fact, the only accuracy in this shotgun description of the bedroom was that there was a brown dresser in the room, which is again hardly an unusual color or place for a dresser to be. In short, Dugan was able to give a general description of a two-story house. When pressed for specifics, his description failed in every regard. This description can hardly be described as corroborative. The plurality next notes that, when driven around the Nicarico neighborhood by police, Dugan was able to locate the house and the approximate site on the Prairie Path where the victim's body was found. Dugan's ability to identify the Nicarico house is hardly noteworthy. At the time of the drive around, the Nicaricos had a mailbox in the front of the house with their name on it. The police failed to remove this mailbox before conducting the drive around. Dugan's ability to identify the house demonstrates only that he is literate. As to Dugan's ability to locate the Prairie Path, Dugan's identification did not go as smoothly as implied by the plurality. During the drive around, Dugan missed the Prairie Path and had the officers continue north on Eola Road. He had no idea he was in the wrong place until Eola Road ends in Butterfield. The officers stopped the car and asked Dugan what they should do. He realized that they must have missed the Prairie Path, and directed them to return from where they came. On the way back they passed a sign that said Prairie Path, and Dugan identified this as the Prairie Path. Again, a remarkable demonstration of Dugan's literacy, but little else. The plurality next notes that Dugan missed work on the day of the murder. This is true, and would tend to corroborate his versions of the day's events. Next, the plurality cites as corroborative the fact that a shoeprint was found on the Nicarico front door which was made by a right foot which kicked the door twice. This is consistent with one of Dugan's variations of the day's events. It should be noted that this statement was made at the same time Dugan claimed that the second kick was needed to break through the chain lock on the door. There was in fact no chain lock on the door. Thus, Dugan changed his story in a way that was more consistent with the facts in general; however, he again failed when pressed for specifics. The next factor cited is that Dugan correctly described the tape used to wrap Jeanine's head in a towel. This is true and tends to corroborate his versions of the day's events. The next corroborative fact cited by the plurality is that Brian Dugan's car was missing a tire jack. Repossession records do indicate that Dugan's tire iron and jack were missing. This fact is apparently seen as corroborative of Dugan's claim that he killed Jeanine with a tire iron. Dugan also claimed that he gave the tire iron to Denise Poquette. Denise, and the rest of her family, denied ever receiving the tire iron or jack. Dugan then changed his story, claiming to have left it behind a water heater in the basement of the Poquette's house. Again, this story did not pan out. Police checked the Poquette's house, and found no tire iron or jack. Dugan then further amended his story, now claiming that he had put it behind the water heater, but knew it could not be found there because he had later tried to retrieve it but found it missing. This series of stories suggests that, whatever Dugan was claiming about the tire iron and jack, it was not entirely truthful. As an initial matter, I fail to see how untruthful statements can be seen to indicate the reliability of other statements made by the liar. More importantly, the absence of the tire iron and jack is simply too tenuous to provide anything in the way of corroboration. No tire iron was ever found that could have possibly been the murder weapon. Further, defendant could not establish that a tire iron was indeed the murder weapon. The best he could do was provide a defense-paid expert witness who testified that a tire iron could not be ruled out as a possible murder weapon. That witness did not rule out anything as a possible murder weapon. It is significant that defendant could not find a single expert who would testify that Jeanine was in fact struck with a tire iron, which I would suggest is minimally necessary before the lack of a tire iron is considered corroborative. On the other hand, Dr. Frank Cleveland, the man who performed Jeanine's autopsy and without question a disinterested third party, testified that a tire iron absolutely could not have been the murder weapon, because a tire iron's diameter and width would not fit the pattern of the blows that Jeanine suffered. Most likely, Brian Dugan identified a tire iron as his murder weapon because he knew it could not be found, and therefore his story could not be proven false. This conclusion is far more reasonable than the supposedly corroborative idea that a tire iron which did not match the blows received by Jeanine, and which was never found, was the murder weapon. There is simply no corroboration here. The plurality next cites the observations of two tollway workers as corroborating. An examination of their testimony reveals otherwise. The relevance of this testimony arose from Dugan's claim that, after the murder, he drove to the end of the Prairie Path and turned around. At some point his car, a four-door green Plymouth Volare missing one hubcap, got stuck in the mud. Depending on which variation of the day's events Dugan was giving, he either got out and pushed the car or he opened the door, stayed in the car and rocked the car free with his foot. The two tollway workers, Frank Kocheny and Roger Seppi, were called by the defense to testify that they saw a white man driving a green car at 2:40 p.m. near the place of the murder. However, the men's testimonies wound up contradicting Dugan's claims, not corroborating them. First, they established that the car was not Dugan's. Frank Kocheny testified that the car, while green and missing a hubcap, was in fact a two-door Ford Granada and not a four-door Plymouth Volare. He also testified that the car was never stuck in the mud, and that the driver never got out or even stopped the car. Seppi testified that he saw a green vehicle, but would not describe it in any more detail. On cross-examination, he conceded that two weeks after the murder, he had described it as a two-door Ford Granada. Kocheny went even further with his testimony and unequivocally testified that driver was not Brian Dugan. The man he observed was a white male with dark hair, it could have been dark brown or black. It wasn't long. And he didn't have a beard, but he needed a shave. It was like a 5:00 o'clock shadow, maybe two or three days' growth. Kind of a chubby face. I would say medium build. Kocheny, who had seen pictures of Dugan, was then asked whether Brian Dugan was the man driving the car. Kocheny answered definitively no. Interestingly, this description is at odds with the description given by Eloise Suk, discussed infra; yet the plurality cites both competing descriptions as corroborative. The only corroborative points between the observations of the toll way workers and Dugan's story is that a green car with a missing hubcap was seen driven by a white male. In light of Kocheny's unequivocal testimony that the driver was not Brian Dugan, that the car did not match Dugan's, and that the driver did not do what Dugan claimed he did, this is not corroborative. In fact, it strongly suggests that there continues to be no one who can place Brian Dugan near the scene of the crime. Finally, the plurality cites as a corroborating factor that Dugan gave his name to an employee of a church located within a halfmile of the Nicarico residence on the afternoon of the murder. This is yet another event that cannot be considered corroborative. Indeed, if the event happened as related by the employee (and there are many reasons to think that it never occurred at all, as will be explained), it tends to disprove Brian Dugan's statements by establishing an involuntary alibi. If the employee's statements are true, it would definitively show that the man the tollway workers saw near the scene of the crime was not Dugan. Eloise Suk testified that on the day of the murder she was employed as a secretary at St. John's Episcopal Church, which is about a half-mile from the Nicarico residence. On that day a man knocked on the door to the office, which was locked. She let him in, and he asked about a job application he had supposedly left with another employee. She told him that there was no job available, but that if he left his name she would put it in the church newsletter. The man wrote down Brian Dugan and a phone number with an Aurora exchange. Suk testified that she kept the paper with his name in her desk for about a year, although shortly after the incident she and the pastor decided not to put it in the newsletter. Thirty-one months after the murder she recognized Dugan when she saw him on television. Suk recanted an earlier statement that she made to police that the man walked in the office at 2:10 p.m. and left at 2:23 p.m. In her new version, she claimed that the exchange probably occurred between 1:10 p.m. and 1:23 p.m. She thought the latter time period was more accurate because she normally left at 1 p.m. on Fridays, and never during her employment did she stay at work until 2 p.m. on a Friday. Apparently, by this testimony she also meant to recant her earlier statement to Agent Thomas Fischer that this exchange occurred on Wednesday, February 23. This testimony is at odds with a newspaper interview she gave to Chicago Lawyer, which appeared in April 1989, about nine months before she testified. There, it was reported that she usually left at 2 on Fridays, but [on February 25, 1983] she had been unusually busy and was running a few minutes late when she heard a knock on the front door of the church. She glanced at the clock, which showed 2:10. She couldn't help thinking that if she had left on time she would not have to deal with whoever this was. Garrett, Prosecutors Are Hiding Truth in Nicarico Case, Says Witness, Chicago Lawyer, April 18, 1989, at 1. Thus, her understanding of the timeframe of that day's events did not change until over six years had elapsed. Suk's description of the man differed from Kocheny's. While Kocheny described a man with a chubby face and no facial hair, Mrs. Suk described a man with a slim face and, after another change in her story, a man with a mustache. She testified that the man made her nervous, and that when she heard about the Nicarico murder she talked about the man to her family. He did not make her nervous enough or suspicious enough to call the police. In addition to Suk's recanting several statements made more proximate to the day in question, there are several other inconsistencies which refute any reasonable belief that Suk ever met Brian Dugan. First and most importantly, Brian Dugan has never once mentioned that he went to a church on the day of the murder. He has never once stated that he talked with someone about a job despite several very detailed descriptions of his purported actions on that day. This fact alone refutes the idea that Suk's account corroborates Dugan's statements, because there is in actuality nothing to corroborate. The best that can be said is that it is completely irrelevant, probably a case of mistaken identity. Further, Suk's testimony is inconsistent with the corroborating factor that tollway workers saw Dugan at 2:40 p.m. near the Prairie Path. If Suk indeed saw Dugan, he could not have been the man seen by the tollway workers driving the green car. Assuming that the original time period given by Suk is true, getting from the church to the Nicarico house (a half-mile away) and then to the Prairie Path (19 minutes away from the Nicarico house) by 2:40 ( i.e., in 17 minutes) would be a physical impossibility, even if the abduction, rape and killing could have been performed instantaneously. However, even taking Suk's change in story at face value, it is unreasonable to think that Dugan could have left the church at 1:23 and performed all the acts he did, including approaching a resident who lived near the Nicaricos to borrow a screwdriver, fixing his car, driving around aimlessly, abducting Jeanine, looking for an isolated spot, driving to the Prairie Path, raping and murdering Jeanine, and be seen driving away at 2:40. Again, Dugan never claimed to have done this; Suk alone offered this deviation from Dugan's purported actions. In fact, none of Dugan's various stories leave room for this transaction. Yet the plurality finds this testimony corroborating. The sum of the true corroboration of Dugan's statements is this: Dugan missed work on the date of the murder, he correctly described the tape used on Jeanine, and he claimed to have entered the house in a manner partially consistent with the evidence. Even before considering the many inconsistencies of Dugan's statements, these facts alone are simply not enough to establish the corroboration required by Chambers v. Mississippi (1973), 410 U.S. 284, 93 S.Ct. 1038, 35 L.Ed.2d 297, and People v. Bowel (1986), 111 Ill.2d 58, 94 Ill.Dec. 748, 488 N.E.2d 995, under any standard of review. The trial court's ruling to the contrary was an abuse of discretion. Once the inconsistencies of Dugan's statements are entered into the equation, the false nature of his story becomes manifest. Some of these inconsistencies have already been highlighted, and the plurality gives a minimal concession of their existence. However, a careful review is worthwhile for two reasons: first, the inconsistencies further demonstrate that Dugan's statements are not corroborated in any sense, and therefore should never have been allowed into evidence; second, and more importantly, they affirmatively demonstrate that the murder could not have occurred as Dugan asserts. To begin with, and as previously alluded to, there are a number of internal inconsistencies in the nine statements given by Brian Dugan. Like most liars, Dugan was unable to keep track of his fabrications. The result is not a single set of events related by Dugan, but rather a series of alternatives. Initially, when asked why he went into the Nicarico neighborhood, he said it was because his car was not working properly. He later changed this story, claiming instead that he went into the neighborhood because he needed money. What happened when he arrived in the Nicarico neighborhood? One constant among his several versions is that he borrowed a screwdriver from an elderly lady whose house was a block or two from the Nicaricos'. Despite an exhaustive search, however, police still do not know who this woman is or which house was hers. Small wonder. Dugan has on different occasions described this house as a darkcolored house, a brick house, a red wood house, and a brown house. Sometimes it was a single-story house, and other times it had two stories. Sometimes there was an attached garage. Depending on the story, Dugan returned the screwdriver either to the lady from whom he borrowed it or to her daughter. Sometimes he saw two elderly men in the house, sometimes only one. What happened when he arrived at the Nicarico house? Again, it depends upon which reliable story one relies upon. At first, Dugan said he parked in the driveway. Then, he initially parked in the street but moved the car into the driveway at some point during the abduction. Later, he said he could not remember where he parked. While inside the house, sometimes Dugan tied Jeanine's hands, sometimes he did not. One time he tied her hands behind her back. Sometimes he gagged her. Dugan's sexual attack also varies from story to story. Sometimes there was only anal sex, sometimes there was oral sex and anal sex, and sometimes an attempt at vaginal sex was made. Sometimes Dugan could not remember what color Jeanine's panties were. Other times he claimed he could remember what color they were, but then guessed incorrectly. In the statements that included administering blows by using a tree branch, Dugan sometimes said that he threw the branch about 10 to 20 feet away, sometimes he either dropped it or threw it, and one time he said he left the branch in a ravine near the body. Sometimes he said he could not remember what he did with it. No branch with blood on it was ever found. After the attack, he said he drove away but his car got stuck in the mud. Sometimes Dugan said he got out of the car and pushed it, while other times he said he opened the car door but stayed in the car, freeing the car by rocking it with his foot. After the alleged attack with a tire iron, Dugan originally said he gave the tire iron and jack to a person later identified as Denise Poquette. Poquette and the rest of her family denied ever receiving the jack. Dugan then changed his story, claiming that he hid the iron and jack in their basement behind the water heater near the washing machine. This, too, was proven false. He then claimed that he left it behind the water heater, and later went to retrieve it but found it missing; thus, he did not know where it was. Finally, Dugan's claim that he killed Jeanine is inconsistent with a letter he wrote while in jail, where he referred to defendant and Alejandro Hernandez (a man accused of assisting defendant in Jeanine's murder) as those baby killers from Naperville. Hardly the words of the man who did the killing. Dugan's story is more than inconsistent with itself. It is also inconsistent with the facts. Dugan claimed that Jeanine had two coats of toenail polish on, which he remembered because her feet were beside him when he sexually assaulted her. He claimed that there was a base milky coat, and a shiny coat on top of that. However, Jeanine had no toenail polish on, whatsoever. Dugan claimed that when he left Jeanine, she was face up. She was found face down, with her body in a condition indicating that this was how her murderer left her. Dugan claimed that when he left her, she was possibly alive. This demonstrates a lack of knowledge about the nature of the blows. Jeanine probably died instantly, and certainly within a few minutes of the blows. The murderer dragged Jeanine's dead body for a distance, several minutes after she died, as shown by post-mortem scratches. Jeanine's murderer knows that he spent a considerable amount of time handling her corpse. Brian Dugan has demonstrated that he has no such knowledge. As previously noted at length, Dugan's description of the inside and outside of the house is inconsistent with the facts. Briefly, Dugan incorrectly described the presence of a wrought iron fence, a chain lock on the door, closets in the front hall, and patio doors in the rec room. He could not identify where either the stairs going up or down were; he incorrectly guessed the rug color in the rec room, the general color of the rec room (bright versus dark), the type of television in the rec room, and the location of the television in the rec room. His description of Jeanine's bedroom missed the mark in every aspect except that she had a brown dresser. Also as previously mentioned, the screwdriver lady is one consistent element among all of Dugan's versions of the day's events. Yet police have never been able to find anyone in the neighborhood that could have possibly been that woman, despite an exhaustive search which included canvassing every house and interviewing people who had moved out of the neighborhood. Neighbors that had moved as far away as Florida were tracked down. No screwdriver lady was found because, as it has become evident, there is no screwdriver lady. Despite sometimes claiming to have parked in the driveway, Dugan never saw the bright-yellow sailboat parked in the driveway, which was 8 feet high and 20 to 30 feet long. Immediately adjacent to the Prairie Path, running the entire length of the Prairie Path, there are huge tension wire towers. These are 60 feet tall, with bases as wide as the length of a car. Dugan said that he never saw them. There are many more inconsistencies which are not only inconsistent with the facts, but which affirmatively demonstrate that Jeanine could not have possibly been killed in any manner remotely similar to Brian Dugan's stories. At the forefront of these is the location of the murder. Wherever Jeanine was killed, it was not on the Prairie Path. Dr. Cleveland testified that when the blows were administered more than a unit of blood (250 milliliters, the amount ordinarily given in a blood transfusion) would have immediately gushed out. Yet only a few drops of blood were found on the Prairie Path, all much smaller than a dime. This could not have possibly been where Jeanine was murdered. Dr. Cleveland also testified that the murder weapon was definitely not a tire iron, because the diameter and width of a tire iron would not match the pattern of the blows Jeanine received. Dugan sometimes claimed that he tied Jeanine's hands and wrapped her in a sheet and carried her out of the house. One time he said he tied her hands behind her back. However, there were scratch marks by the door made by a child's fingers, indicating that Jeanine tried to prevent herself from being taken from the house. Further, an examination of Jeanine's wrists revealed no ligature marks, which would have been there had her wrists been bound. Finally, in the versions where Dugan mentioned vaginal sex, he claimed that he only attempted it unsuccessfully. However, Dr. Cleveland testified that there was full vaginal penetration. Jeanine's murderer was far more successful than Dugan thought.