Jury Finds Longtime Fugitive Guilty Of Reckless Homicide

WAUKEGAN, IL — A man who spent nearly a quarter-century as a fugitive from justice after fleeing to Poland now faces up to 14 years in prison following a conviction for reckless homicide.

Marek Josko, 67, was found guilty Thursday following a four-day jury trial in Waukegan. Jurors deliberated for about two and a half hours before returning with the verdict, according to the Lake County State's Attorney's Office.

Authorities said Josko was driving the wrong way on Route 41 around 1:30 a.m. on Dec. 9, 1995, when he caused a multi-car accident that resulted in the death of 26-year-old Dennis Bourassa, of Waukegan.

Josko, who was living in Chicago at the time, was initially charged with driving under the influence of alcohol after a sample indicated he had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.19 after the crash. Back in 1995, the legal limit for intoxication was 0.10.

Nine days after the fatal crash, a Lake County judge issued a reckless homicide warrant. But before police could find him and serve the warrant, Josko boarded a plane to Warsaw, Poland, from O'Hare International Airport.

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The case went cold until 2014, when former Lake County State's Attorney Mike Nerheim, who is now a Lake County circuit judge, contacted Lake Forest Police Det. Mark Senger with a request to follow up on the case.

The detective, who is now retired, remained in contact with Bourassa's widow and family as well as the officers who originally investigated the case.

"I'm extremely proud to have been a part of it just because of all the work that everybody before me did on the case. And a lot of my motivation was Dennis and his family," Senger told Patch. "It just did not seem fair in any way, shape or form, and I'm just very thankful that justice has been served."

The prosecutor's office worked with federal agencies, including the FBI and the US Embassy in Poland to track down Josko over several years until he was finally found living in the Polish city of Przemysl.

Josko was first arrested in August 2017 on an Interpol "red notice" and released on bail while Polish courts determined whether he could be extradited back to Lake County, Senger recalled.

After the courts approved his extradition, Josko failed to show up to court in December 2019. After a nationwide warrant was issued for his arrest he was taken into custody in February 2020, where he has remained ever since.

After several months of delays due to the first wave of COVID-19 infections in the United States and Europe, Josko was extradited to Midway International Airport on June 25, 2020.

He was ordered jailed in lieu of a $100,000 cash portion of his bond. The next month, a grand jury returned a one-count indictment and Josko pleaded not guilty, according to court records.

Josko, who was represented by the Lake County Public Defender's Office, was ready for trial in April, but prosecutors requested additional delays.

Lake County State's Attorney Eric Rinehart thanked Nerheim and Judge Ari Fisz for their work on the case during their time as prosecutors, as well as the law enforcement agencies that were involved.

“After all these years without justice, I hope the family of the victim can now rest easy knowing that this ordeal is finally coming to a close,” Rinehart said.

Following Josko's conviction, Senger, the Lake Forest detective who stuck with the cause, acknowledged the efforts of prosecutors, specifically Assistant State's Attorneys Lauren Kalcheim Rothenberg and Scott Hoffert.

The detective also thanked the former Lake Forest police officers who came back to testify, the FBI and U.S. Justice Department who worked to get Josko back to Illinois for trial and everyone who worked to give justice and closure to the Bourassa family.

“The family and the Lake Forest Police Department have waited a quarter of a century for justice in Dennis Bourassa’s death," said Hoffert, one of the prosecutors in the case, in a statement following the trial. "We are pleased with the jury’s work and its verdict in this case.”