The Prom Night Murders by Carlton Smith

Author:Carlton Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780312947248
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

CHAPTER 20

Even before the election and the bail hearing, some of the investigators had been hard at work trying to assemble more details of Jeff’s history over the previous dozen years. At some point in October, detectives had contacted Bob’s sister—Jeff’s aunt—Jon Boso, in Ohio. As the executor of the Pelley estate, Jon possessed financial records dating back to the 1980s for Bob and Dawn, including old bills, bank statements, check registers and the like. Among these papers, Jon found a pad with notes related to the meeting Jeff and Jack Armstrong had had with Mike Dvorak back in the summer of 1989.

The notes indicated that Jeff and Jack had discussed the case, at least in generalities, with Dvorak, and possibly others in his private law office, some of whom were now slated to join the prosecutor’s staff after January 1, 2003. Jon also told the detectives that after the meeting with Dvorak, Jeff had called her to say that Dvorak was willing to represent him in the case, but wanted a retainer of $5,000. Jon had told Jeff the fee was too high—she wouldn’t approve it as an expense of the estate.

For some reason, this information did not come out before the election—possibly Toth thought it was too hot to handle, that it would only underscore the claims that he was using the Pelley case for political ends. Accusing his opponent of being potentially sympathetic to Jeff because of their long-ago conversation could only add fuel to the Pelley-as-politics pyre.

But once the election was over, Corcella passed the information about Dvorak on to Andre Gammage, Jeff’s second-chair defense lawyer, and later, to a reporter for the Tribune. Corcetta believed Dvorak’s contact with Jeff back in 1989, in which the case had undoubtedly been discussed, meant Dvorak had at least the appearance, if not the actuality, of a conflict-of-interest: he could not now be responsible for prosecuting the man who had potentially confided in him, as a defense lawyer, thirteen years before.

A week before Christmas in 2002, Corcella went public with her concerns about Dvorak, and said the incoming prosecutor should recuse himself and turn the case over to a special prosecutor.

“He can’t do Pelley,” Corcella told reporters Gwen O’Brien and Matthew S. Galbraith of the Tribune, “and he knew this during the campaign. He hid it from the public.” In essence, Corcella was accusing Dvorak of bad faith with voters prior to the election. Baum and Gammage said they agreed with Corcella.

“If there’s any suggestion of anyone in his [soon-to-be-former private practice] office having had any personal contact with Jeffrey and his family about the case, it is incumbent upon Mike to recuse himself and his [soon-to-be-assumed public] office,” Baum told the reporters. “Recusal is his ethical duty, and he needs to bring it to the court’s attention.”

Dvorak didn’t want to talk about recusal, or even acknowledge that he’d been consulted by Jeff thirteen years before.

“I cannot even answer the question without jeopardizing the case,” he said. Then he

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