Lake County Judge Rules Melissa Calusinski Does Not Deserve a New Trial

LAKE COUNTY, IL -- After months of heated hearings between the defense and prosecution in one of the highest-profile and controversial murder cases in Lake County history, a judge ruled on Friday that Melissa Calusinski does not deserve a new trial.

The ruling comes more than seven years after 16-month-old Benjamin Kingan of Deerfield was found unresponsive in a bouncy chair at the now-closed Minee Subee day care center in Lincolnshire with foam and blood coming out of his nose, the Chicago Tribune reports. Calusinski was convicted in 2011 of first-degree murder in connection with Kingan’s death.

In 2015, defense attorney Kathleen Zellner filed a 211-page request for a new trial, the Daily Herald reports. She said X-rays, which were previously not shared at Calusinski's 2011 trial, showed the young boy suffered a previous head injury. Prosecutors returned with a 37-page motion that claimed the X-rays were not new evidence and that the defense just never "electronically enhanced" them before the trial.

Calusinski, of Carpenterville, has been in custody since 2009, when she was charged with Kingan’s murder. An autopsy at that time showed Kingan suffered a skull fracture that led to his death. During a nine-hour interrogation, Calusinski repeatedly denied hurting the boy, but she eventually confessed to slamming Kingan’s head on the floor shortly before he was found unresponsive, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The autopsy results, along with a confession from Calusinski that for years has been disputed as coerced, led to Calusinski’s conviction.

Last June, defense attorneys approached Lake County Coroner Thomas Rudd after learning of X-rays on file at the coroner’s office, which they said were never shared or provided to them prior to Calusinki’s trial. After analyzing this new evidence, Rudd said it was impossible to conclude that the “final head injury was intentionally inflicted.”

One of the new skull X-rays showed Kingan had an abnormally shaped head. His head was round, like “an old-fashioned light bulb,” which was not normal for a child his age. His head circumference was also in the 95th percentile at the time of his death, according to the coroner’s office.

“This indicates significant abnormality within the head,” Rudd said in the Wednesday press release. “What is most striking in this skull X-ray is a complete lack of evidence for a skull fracture.”

Rudd also said the original findings that Kingan suffered a “fatal acute bleed” were false. Kingan was known to bang his head, and Rudd said “repetitive concussions” led to his death. Subsequent hand-banging incidents, including a final head-banging incident about 20 minutes before he was found unresponsive at the day care, was likely the “mechanism of death.”

• Lake Co. Coroner Changes Cause of Death Ruling For Boy Who Died at Daycare in 2009

Kingan’s doctor has testified that head banging is not uncommon and does not normally lead to serious injury, according to the Chicago Tribune. In the months prior to his death, day care workers found a golf ball-sized bump on Kingan's head and shortly after that, he was taken to the doctor for a high fever, which was treated with antibiotics. At a checkup just a month before his death, his primary care pediatrician said he was "growing beautifully,” according to the newspaper report.

Prosecutors say the X-rays that the defense claim bring to light new medical evidence are not new — and that the images could have been brightened at any time with software. They also say any old injury Kingan may have suffered is insignificant, and they are relying on experts who have testified that Benjamin died of a sudden severe injury on Jan. 14, 2009, the Chicago Tribune reports.

But defense attorney Kathleen Zellner says the X-ray files provided before Calusinski’s trial were compressed to a fraction of their original size, a move that could be grounds for a prosecutorial violation, according to the newspaper. Dr. Eupil Choi, who conducted Kingan’s initial autopsy, also admitted he did not diagnose a chronic subdural hematoma, which is a collection of blood on the brain’s surface from a prior injury. But that, Choi said, did not change his mind that the boy died of a recent head trauma and not a past injury.

The details surrounding the case are complex. And the case has gotten national attention and has been featured in the past on CBS News' "48 Hours."

Rudd, a medical doctor, told "48 Hours" during an interview in early 2015 that Calusinski should not have been convicted based on the forensic evidence. Rudd took office in 2012 and began reviewing the records at Calusinski’s father’s request. Rudd says he found significant and obvious evidence of a prior brain injury. And a former Cook County coroner enlisted for a second opinion agreed with him.

• Read More: 2009 Minee Subee Daycare Killing Profiled on ‘48 Hours’

Calusinski's attorneys are expected to appeal Friday's ruling, according to the Daily Herald

More via the Chicago Tribune and the Daily Herald

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