Protesters Call For Release of Melissa Calusinski

Photos courtesy Ralph Peterson Jr.

Supporters of Melissa Calusinski, the woman serving a 31-year prison sentence after she confessed to the 2009 death of 16-month-old Deerfield boy Benjamin Kingan at a Lincolnshire day care, are demanding she be released.

About 25 protesters marched through the streets of downtown Waukegan outside Lake County Prosecutor Michael Nerheim’s office on Thursday with signs calling for Calusinski’s release, according to the Lake County News-Sun and other media reports.

Protesters were focused on the revelation of the current Lake County coroner, Thomas Rudd, who recently issued a release stating the cause of death for Kingan has been changed to “undetermined” and that there was no way to tell the boy’s injury was intentionally inflicted as well as the fact that Calusinski told investigators she was innocent 79 times during an interrogation. Rudd’s determination came after re-evaluating a set of X-rays.

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“Those X-rays, Rudd says, prove that the brain injury that led to Benjamin’s death had been growing for months, and that Calusinski did not cause the injury she was convicted of inflicting,” according to the News-Sun report.

The protest continued on water later from a boat, outside Nerheim’s re-election kickoff party at the Waukegan Yacht Club. The wore purple shirts with the words “Free Melissa” on the front.

“They framed my daughter,” Paul Calusinski, Melissa’s father, said. “Enough is enough. Let my daughter out.”

Also from the News-Sun article:

Robert Jacoby, the pastor of Bible Baptist Church in Carpentersville, said he has spoken with dozens of men and women who have faced accusations of wrongdoing. When he spoke with Melissa Calusinski, he said she maintained eye contact and never flinched.

“If she was lying, she had me completely fooled,” Jacoby said. “I told her ‘I can’t do much, other than pray for you.’ “

“I am 100 point zero zero percent sure that Melissa is completely innocent,” added John Minarcik, a retired pathologist. “The hemorrhage that was in that baby’s head was not an acute injury.”

more via the Lake County News-Sun