District 86 Teacher's Murder Trial Taken Off Judge Rippy's Calendar

JOLIET, IL — When it comes to high-profile murder cases in Courtroom 402, Will County Circuit Judge Daniel Rippy often moves them along at the speed of a sloth.

This marks year six that the first-degree murder case of ex-Joliet District 86 Washington Middle School teacher Michael Kazecki has remained on Rippy's court docket — and there are now no guarantees Rippy will allow the McDonough Street murder case to proceed to a jury trial in 2024.

Judge Rippy continues to accommodate the jury trial delay tactics orchestrated by Kazecki, who comes from a family with money and now lives in Oak Lawn, and his family's privately hired defense counsel, Nate Tate, of Joliet's Edward Jaquays Law Firm.

Back in 2018, to prevent the Will County State's Attorney's Office of Jim Glasgow from making comments that were unfavorable to Michael Kazecki, Judge Rippy issued a gag order.

Kazecki remains the only murder case at the Will County Courthouse with a gag order still in place restricting both sides from speaking with reporters about the proceedings. There is not even a gag order in place in the case of Plainfield murder and hate crime defendant, Joseph Czuba, the Route 30 landlord accused of stabbing a 6-year-old boy and the boy's mother, because of their family's Muslim faith.

As for the Becky Kazecki slaying, Michael Kazecki and Tate have successfully resisted efforts over the years to let her family and friends have their day in Will County's Courthouse.

At age 38, Becky Kazecki died at Joliet's St. Joe's hospital in August 2018. Joliet police determined the teacher at Gompers Junior High School on Briggs Street died of head trauma after enduring several days of beatings from her husband, who was also a Joliet District 86 school teacher.

The Kazecki family, along with their three sons, lived in two-story house on Joliet's west side, in the 700 block of McDonough Street, near Raynor Avenue.

Last week, at the Will County Courthouse, Kazecki and his defense counsel were successful — once again — at getting their rapidly approaching February 26 jury trial date scratched off Judge Rippy's court's schedule.

In the alternative, court files indicate, Judge Rippy will now hold a pretrial evidence suppression hearing in his courtroom on February 26.

The hearing will involve a legal issue that has been before the judge since Joliet Patch wrote about it back in the fall.

Last October — which marked five years and three months after the death of Joliet's Gompers Junior High teacher, Michael Kazecki and his lawyer asked the judge to suppress his interview with Joliet police.

That interview took place on August 7, 2018.

"Michael Kazecki's due process right as constitutionally protected by the Constitution of the State of Illinois were violated by the Joliet Police Department when they failed to allow him an opportunity to consult with his counsel and further when they failed to adequately provide the defendant information to make a knowing, intelligent and voluntary waiver of his right to counsel," Tate argued in his motion, which was four months ago.

According to Tate's filing from October:

"That despite indicating to the defendant, Michael Kazecki, that an attorney was present and wanting to represent him, members of the Joliet Police Department never specifically advised the defendant that counsel from The Law Offices of Edward R. Jaquays had retained on his behalf by his family," Tate's motion argued.

Tate contends that due process laws in Illinois require the accused be given the benefit of counsel and such benefit extends to interrogations.

"That due to such violation of the defendant ... any such statements made while in the custody of the Joliet Police Department should be suppressed and excluded from being presented as evidence within this ... pending matter," Tate's motion declared.

After removing the Feb. 26 jury trial date from his court calendar, Judge Rippy is holding off on setting a new date for Kazecki's jury trial. This means there are no guarantees the family of Becky Kazecki will have their day in court in 2024, six years after their loved one's untimely death.

As Joliet Patch has reported numerous occasions over the years, Michael Kazecki, who now lives in Oak Lawn, is one of only a handful of Joliet first-degree murder defendants who remain free while awaiting their respective trial.

His mother posted 10 percent of his $2 million bail three weeks after his August 2018 arrest.

Related Joliet Patch coverage from recent years:

Joliet Teacher Slaying 5 Years Ago, Husband's Trial 6 Months Away

Joliet Teacher's Homicide: Did Police Violate Husband's Rights?