BELLEVILLE – Former chief judge John Baricevic beat a battery charge against his client Betty Lee by claiming she defended herself when her sister Jean Edwards violated a six-foot Covid rule.
St. Clair County Associate Judge Tameeka Purchase acquitted Lee at bench trial on Aug. 29.
Lee swore she didn’t make contact, but Baricevic conceded the point after a witness saw it and swore it happened.
The event occurred at New Athens Home for the Aged last Sept. 7, in the course of disputes arising from the sisters' joint custody of mother Sally Dixon.
Lee would later retain Baricevic and obtain sole custody.
After the event in New Athens, Edwards filed a battery complaint against Lee.
State’s Attorney James Gomric asked for a special prosecutor and a judge appointed former Adams County state’s attorney John Barnard.
At trial, Barnard asked Edwards about arrangements for scheduling time with their mother.
Edwards said she went Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays to avoid sister Lee.
She said she and Lee did not like one another and did not get along.
Barnard asked about logistics of visitation and she said the Covid virus was active and she had to visit outside a window.
She said there was a screen there but the window stayed shut.
He asked if Lee was there and she said yes.
“I said today’s my day to visit with mom," Edwards said.
She said Lee responded, “Get away from me. You don’t have your shot.”
She said Lee pulled up a flannel shirt that wasn’t buttoned, held it open, and took the whole window.
She said she asked Lee to move and Lee repeated that she didn’t have a Covid shot.
“I just took my head and stuck it under the shirt and I said, hi mom," she said.
She said she didn’t touch Lee.
"Betty once again said get away from me. You don’t have your shot," she said.
“She kind of pushed me like this a little. It wasn’t hard the first time.”
She said she started talking to mother Dixon and nursing home employee Hope Anastasio set up a tray in front of Dixon.
She said Lee told Dixon she’d be back later that week.
Barnard asked what happened next and Edwards said, “She went real hard like this and then she turned around and she said I’m recording you.”
He asked if Lee used the back of her upper arm and Edwards said yes.
He asked if that made contact and she said yes.
He asked where and she said, “On this side of me. I kind of stumbled some.”
He asked how she felt and she said she told Lee she’d call police.
Barnard said he had no further questions.
On cross examination, Baricevic asked Edwards, “You aren’t vaccinated, are you?”
“No," she said. "I don’t have health issues.”
Baricevic said, “Not only don’t you like Betty, you oppose her being your mother’s guardian, correct?”
He asked if she petitioned to remove Lee as guardian and she said yes.
He asked if a judge found that Lee should be guardian and she said yes.
“Did you ask Betty if you could get underneath her shirt?” he asked.
She said no.
“Why didn’t you stay six feet away?” he asked.
She said, “I didn’t know that Betty wanted to stay six feet away from people that don’t have their Covid shot because she’s around other people that don’t have their Covid shot.”
He said, “It didn’t make any difference to you whether you might infect Betty with Covid or not?”
She said, “She didn’t have a mask on. I had a mask on.”
He said, “Couldn’t you stay six feet away for 10 minutes and spend the rest of the day with your mom?”
She said, “She would have stayed there covering the window and I wouldn’t have got to see my mom.”
He asked if she was the perfect child and she said no.
He said, “You start arguments all the time with Betty, don’t you?”
She said no and he said, “No?”
She said no and he said, “Lord.”
Barnard objected and Baricevic said, “Your honor, it goes to bias.”
Purchase sustained the objection and Baricevic asked Edwards if she was still fighting Lee’s guardianship.
She said yes and he said that was all he had.
Barnard called witness Anastasio, the nursing home employee.
“Jeanie handed me a lunch for Sally so I went down to their mother’s room to set up her lunch for her,” Anastasio said.
Anastasio said she heard bickering and turned around.
“I saw the sister Betty punch Jeanie kind of like just on the shoulder,” she said.
He asked about a shirt over the window and she said she didn’t see any of that.
“I witnessed like 30 seconds max of the argument,” she said.
He asked what contact she saw Edwards make before that push or shove.
She said she didn’t see any contact.
Barnard said he had no further questions and Purchase told Anastasio, “You may step down.”
Baricevic spoke up and Purchase said, “Oh, excuse me.”
Baricevic asked Anastasio if it concerned her that the contact could cause have caused injury and she said no.
He said he had nothing else for Anastasio, and he called Lee.
He asked why she had her shirt up and she said, “Because it’s hard to see in with that screen.”
He asked if Edwards said she’d call police and Lee said, “I told her to go ahead because I didn’t do nothing wrong.”
He asked if there had been contact and she said no.
He said she heard the attendant testify and asked if it happened.
“Jeanie had already started saying I was shoving her before she even came in the room," Lee said.
He asked if there was minimal contact and she said yes.
He asked if she had an audio recording with her and she said yes.
Barnard said he had an issue and Purchase asked what it was.
He asked if there was any request for permission and said, “Unless that was done by permission it’s not admissible.”
“In fact it’s worse than that. It’s actually a crime in and of itself unless counsel can establish an exception for the eavesdropping,” he said.
Baricevic said Lee testified that she told Edwards she’d record it.
Barnard said, “We don’t know whether recording began before or after that.”
Purchase asked if they could tell by the video and Barnard said, “I think the witness has already said there is no video.”
Purchase went off the record so Baricevic could play it.
Back on the record Barnard said he’d object for the record but, “To be blunt, go ahead and play it.”
Baricevic said Lee told Edwards she’d record.
“If the sister keeps talking that’s consent,” he said.
Barnard said, “I could not disagree more with that.”
Purchase said, “I’m not going to allow the video, or audio, recording to be played.”
Baricevic said he had nothing else and Barnard said, “Ms. Lee, you claim that you made no physical contact with your sister, correct?”
Lee said yes and Barnard said he had no further questions.
“Everyone in this room has the right to be free from uninvited contact that’s knowingly made that causes us to become upset, to be angry, to provoke us," Barnard said.
He said no one made an issue of injury but that’s not an excuse or a defense.
Baricevic said, “All Jean had to do is stay six feet away. Jean started everything that did or didn’t happen. Maybe some contact happened but it wouldn’t have happened but for the action of Jean.”
He declared Edwards guilty of assault and said she abused the process by bringing the case to court.
Barnard said, “It either happened or it didn’t.”
He quoted Anastasio and said, “That’s all it comes down to.”
Purchase said, “I find the defendant Betty J. Lee not guilty.”