Chicago DUI lawyer provides an update on the DUI proceedings without a DUI Cop

I posted here and here on former Lake County Chief Judge David Hall's DUI case. You may recall that the arresting officer in this case died a year ago (he died of a heart attack that had nothing to do with this DUI arrest).

Well it appears that the arresting officer will be testifying from the grave and the defendant will not have a right to cross-examine him-- a violation of the sixth amendment of the United States Constitution based on the Confrontation Clause. The case is set for trial in a few months.

June 24, Waukegan, Il

Judge David Hall's DUI case will go to trial this fall.

Attorneys from the Illinois Attorney General's Chicago office are prosecuting the case.

Hall, the former chief judge of the 19th Judicial Circuit, was charged with DUI, resisting a police officer, improper lane usage and making an improper turn following a traffic stop April 26, 2008, on Route 60 near St. Mary's Road in Vernon Hills.

A breath test was not conducted at the scene, but blood was drawn while Hall was treated at a hospital for injuries apparently sustained during a struggle with police.

Hall's case has moved slowly due to the death of the arresting officer just weeks after the incident, and the logistics of having prosecutors, lawyers and a judge from different counties.

It will be a sad day for justice, and I'm certain that irony is not loss on the defendant in this case, if this matter proceeds to trial while gutting the sixth amendment of the U.S. Constitution.