Joliet Police Did Not Intentionally Skip Brandon Kelly's Trial: Chief
JOLIET, IL — One day after dismissing two counts of resisting arrest charges against Brandon Kelly, the 43-year-old Joliet owner of Undisputed Strength fitness center, the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office has reversed course, refiling the two charges on Thursday, Patch learned.
On Wednesday, not one of the four Joliet police officers involved in Kelly’s late September arrest showed up for the start of Kelly’s criminal trial, which was on the court calendar for months. Also, on March 21, Joliet Patch wrote a news article, read by several thousand people, headlined, “Brandon Kelly’s Resisting Arrest Trial Is Almost Here.”
But at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, when Kelly’s case was called on the docket by Will County Judge Sherri Hale, a prosecutor informed the courtroom that none of their witnesses, four Joliet police officers, were present for the start of Kelly’s 10:30 a.m. bench trial.
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When Judge Hale refused to delay the case at the prosecutor’s request, the prosecutor announced that they were dismissing Kelly’s resisting arrest charges.
Then on Thursday morning, Joliet Police Chief Bill Evans notified Joliet Patch that none of his officers intentionally skipped attending the trial against Kelly.
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The chief insisted there was a clerical error at the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office and that was the reason why none of his four officers were notified to be in Courtroom 302 for Wednesday’s 10:30 a.m. trial.
“I want to clear the air for the citizens that the officers involved did not intentionally miss that court date,” Chief Evans told Joliet Patch’s editor. “Because of the clerical error, they were not notified that this case was up … I am not disappointed with the State’s Attorney’s Office. I completely understand the state’s position.”
A high-ranking member of the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office confirmed the Joliet police chief’s version of events when contacted by Joliet Patch.
By late Thursday afternoon, criminal prosecutors had re-filed their two charges of resisting arrest against Kelly surrounding his arrest at his Undisputed Strength on Essington Road.
The violent encounter resulted in Kelly being tasered by Joliet police officers who followed Kelly inside his gym after he screamed profanity at them, and ordering them to stay out of his gym and get off his private property.
At the time, Kelly was conducting a pre-dawn fitness class with about a dozen people when the Joliet police showed up at his business.
According to the criminal complaint, Kelly pushed Joliet Police Officer Allen Pina, and Kelly pulled away from Joliet Police Officer Nicholas Szalinski.
When reached later for comment, Kelly’s lawyer, Chuck Bretz, said “he finds it hard to believe that not one person in the State’s Attorney’s Office or any of the four officers, or the Joliet Police Department as a whole,” knew that Kelly’s trial was set to begin on Wednesday “even though there was a Patch article that specifically told the whole world that the case was up that day.”
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Now that the charges were re-filed, “we’ll appear in court and be ready to defend those charges with multiple witnesses,” Bretz remarked.
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