McGilvery will remain in custody pending trial, judge rules

Accused heroin dealer Sean McGilvery of Belleville will remain in federal custody while he awaits trial.

U.S. Magistrate Donald Wilkerson on Monday denied a move by attorney Rodney Holmes of St. Louis for reconsideration of an earlier detention order of McGilvery.

Holmes argued that a bed was available at a residential drug treatment facility and that McGilvery could be released to an aunt's home after treatment was completed.

In his order, Wilkerson noted McGilvery’s lack of success at previous drug rehabilitation attempts.

“There is no evidence before the Court that this proposed stay in a residential facility might have a different result,” Wilkerson wrote.

McGilvery is charged with conspiracy to distribute and possess more than 1 kilogram of heroin with the intent to deliver. He was arrested May 23 and has pleaded not guilty.

He also is an alleged co-conspirator of Deborah Perkins and Douglas Oliver of Fairview Heights who face charges of conspiring to distribute heroin and a controlled substance.

Perkins and Oliver plan to plead guilty to drug crimes, according to their attorneys in court documents filed June 19.

Drug agents had opened an investigation in November after the deaths of two women who allegedly overdosed on drugs in Perkins’s home at 20 Kassing Drive.

McGilvery also allegedly supplied heroin to former St. Clair County Circuit Judge Michael Cook.

Cook was arrested at McGilvery’s residence on May 22. He is charged with heroin possession and a firearms offense. He pleaded not guilty to the charges, stepped down from the bench and entered a residential drug rehab facility out of state.

Another individual tied to the drug scandal is former probation officer James Fogarty, who faces cocaine distribution charges. He is accused of providing cocaine to Cook and the late Joseph Christ, a St. Clair County judge and former prosecutor who died in March of cocaine intoxification while he and Cook were at a family hunting lodge in Pike County. Fogarty has pleaded not guilty and was released on bond.

Holmes moved for reconsideration of an earlier order detaining McGilvery which was heard by Wilkerson on June 20.

Among other things, Holmes argued that McGilvery did not have a record of drug convictions.

Federal prosecutor James Porter countered by blaming St. Clair County justice for the absence of criminal convictions of McGilvery.

The reason McGilvery had no convictions was “because of the people he dealt with in the courthouse,” Porter said.

Cook had presided over a felony drug possession case McGilvery faced last year, dismissing it after ruling he successfully completed a “drug school” program.

In his order, Wilkerson wrote that McGilvery is addicted to heroin.

“Defendant successfully completed the requirements of the St. Clair County, Illinois drug court, a component of which is drug treatment,” he wrote. “However, at the time of his arrest, Defendant was on a methadone maintenance program but was nonetheless allegedly actively distributing and using heroin. Clearly, Defendant’s most recent participation in drug treatment was unsuccessful.”

He also held that “no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure the safety of any other person or the community.”