MOUNT VERNON – While Fifth District Appellate Court candidates Michael McHaney and Barry Vaughan presided as circuit judges from 2011 to 2018, McHaney was reversed in eight criminal cases and Vaughan four.
In 2011, in a Hamilton County case, they found Vaughan improperly denied Cyrus Wood’s motion to withdraw a guilty plea on charges of sexual assault and abuse.
They found Wood’s former counsel certified that he consulted with Wood after trial and amended Wood’s pleadings, when he hadn’t. They found counsel filed an equally deficient certificate six months later.
They remanded to Vaughan and directed counsel to file a proper certificate.
In a Montgomery County case, they reversed McHaney’s judgment on a jury verdict finding Festus Brown guilty of cocaine possession.
McHaney sentenced him for three years.
A state appellate defender appealed, claiming Brown was unfit to stand trial.
Appellate judges found his pleadings bizarre. They found he displayed behavior that indicated mental illness, and found a defendant waiving counsel must have use of his mental faculties.
In a Marion County case, they found McHaney improperly dismissed a petition for relief from judgment.
He had sentenced Courtney Spears to 10 years upon conviction for possessing a controlled substance with intent to distribute it.
Spears petitioned for relief and the state had 30 days to respond.
In 12 days McHaney denied the petition.
The state simplified the appeal by confessing error.
Appellate judges found McHaney short circuited the proceedings and deprived the state of time to answer or otherwise plead.
In 2012, in a Hamilton County case, they found Vaughan improperly denied Dan Waeckerle’s motion to reconsider a sentence of four years for sexual abuse.
They found a defendant who negotiated a plea and later wished to challenge his sentence must first move to withdraw his plea. They found Vaughan told Waeckerle he must either move to reconsider his sentence or move to withdraw his plea.
They remanded with directions for proper admonishment.
In 2014, in a Marion County case, they reversed McHaney and ordered a second trial for Phillip Tally on a charge of aggravated battery.
Tally struck Michael Grimes on the head with a baseball bat.
His counsel stated in discovery that Tally would assert self defense but didn’t pursue that strategy until bench trial started.
The state moved to exclude it and Tally’s counsel said he learned the day before that Grimes had a bat too.
McHaney said, “This is an attempt at trial by ambush.”
He excluded it, held trial, convicted Tally, and sentenced him for 10 years.
On appeal, Tally asked for a second trial and a different judge. The state opposed a second trial but didn’t oppose a different judge.
Appellate judges found McHaney should have continued trial so the state could respond to the claim of self defense. They found the truth seeking function outweighed the minor inconvenience in continuing a trial with no jury and few witnesses.
The judges ordered reassignment, to remove any suggestion of unfairness.
In 2015, in a Fayette County case, they reversed McHaney’s finding his mandatory life sentences for juvenile murderer Clifford Baker violated the U.S. Constitution.
They classified mandatory life for a juvenile as cruel and unusual. They found no indication that McHaney considered Baker’s youth and attendant characteristics before imposing a sentence.
In 2015, in a Marion County case, they reversed McHaney’s denial of a motion to withdraw a guilty plea that followed a guilty plea.
First, Anthony Willis pleaded guilty of felony retail theft.
McHaney sentenced him for 18 months.
Willis didn’t report to jail on time and the state charged him with escape.
He reported to county jail a week late and stated he thought it was the right date.
McHaney set jury trial on the escape charge in three months.
As trial began, Willis’s counsel said the state offered three years and Willis countered with two.
Counsel said the state revoked its offer and later declined 30 months. Counsel said Willis would make an open plea.
At a hearing the state asked for seven years and Willis’s counsel asked for three.
McHaney gave him 10.
Willis moved to withdraw his plea, without counsel, and McHaney denied it.
On appeal Willis claimed his former counsel filed a certificate that was defective on its face and impeached by the record. It stated that counsel consulted with Willis and made any amendments necessary for adequate presentation of defects in the proceedings.
Appellate judges found Willis’s counsel admitted on the record he didn’t amend any pleadings.
Justice Goldenhersh wrote, “The pleadings should have been amended to reflect that defendant was confused and did not knowingly plead guilty.”
He wrote that the sentence appeared disproportionate to the crime.
In 2016, in a Marion County case, appellate judges reversed McHaney’s judgment on a jury verdict finding Odey Wright guilty of armed robbery.
They found McHaney committed constitutional error by allowing the state to introduce statements Wright made to police.
They found an officer handcuffed him, placed him in the back of a patrol car, and engaged him in ongoing conversation. They found the officer drove him to an area where he could see police questioning the mother of his children, and found he saw them place her in a patrol car.
Goldenhersh wrote, “Most people would be susceptible after seeing their loved one implicated in a crime in which he or she had not participated.”
Dissenting Justice Welch stated Wright freely engaged in conversation and volunteered information about the crime.
In 2017, in a White County case, appellate judges found Vaughan improperly denied motions to strike three prospective jurors.
They ordered a second trial for Candice Brown on a charge of obstructing justice.
Justice Moore wrote that Vaughan “disregarded the bedrock principle that a trial judge must regard the examination of each prospective juror as a whole.”
He wrote that Vaughan “continued to press jurors until he was able to get an answer that he considered satisfactory.”
In 2017, in a Fayette County case, appellate judges found McHaney improperly denied reduction of a sentence for methamphetamine producer Michael Fickes.
McHaney hadn’t imposed the sentence, but took the case after the Supreme Court appointed trial judge Eugene Schwarm to the appellate court.
Schwarm and McHaney found the crime occurred near a church but appellate judges found no evidence that it functioned as a place of worship at the time.
They found the state tried to string testimony together to create an inference.
They quoted Supreme Court precedent that places of worship invite the public, unlock doors, and relax security.
In a Hamilton County case, they reversed Vaughan’s judgment on a jury verdict convicting Brian Bowlby of sexual assault of a child and sexual abuse.
The state asserted that a mandatory life sentence applied because of a prior conviction on the same charge.
Bowlby’s counsel agreed and Vaughan sentenced Bowlby for natural life.
Appellate judges found Vaughan shouldn’t have admitted prior convictions.
They found he didn’t have enough details about them to balance their probative value against prejudice. They found Bowlby’s counsel was ineffective when he agreed that Bowlby was eligible for mandatory life.
In 2018, in a Marion County case, they ordered a second trial for Jerry Courtney due to McHaney’s failure to detect ineffective assistance.
Jurors found Courtney guilty of aggravated weapon possession and residential burglary, and McHaney sentenced him for 25 years.
Appellate judges found counsel performed little or no examination of witnesses.
They found that counsel asked 14 questions in examining nine state’s witnesses, that counsel inexplicably failed to use impeachment evidence that counsel could have impeached two witnesses with prior inconsistent statements and two with pending drug charges, and that counsel failed to inform the jury that the burglary victim didn’t have an accurate inventory of his firearms.
They also found it reasonably probable that absent deficient representation, the outcome of the trial and the sentencing would have been different.
McHaney and Vaughn will compete in the June 28 Republican primary for the Overstreet vacancy.
Vaughan serves by appointment of the Illinois Supreme Court at the Fifth District, filling the remainder of Overstreet’s term. Overstreet was elected to the Supreme Court in 2020.
McHaney is a circuit judge in the Fourth Judicial Circuit. His term expires at the end of this year, but he is not simultaneously seeking retention to the circuit court while campaigning for the Fifth District.
Comparison of their reversals in civil cases will follow.