The LaSalle County State’s Attorney’s Office Thursday got out of a case in which an Iowa man is accused of using excessive force by putting an Ottawa man in a choke hold that ended fatally. Involuntary manslaughter charges still stand against 45-year old Mason Shannon. But State’s Attorney Karen Donnelly’s team is no longer prosecuting him for the death of 32-year old Michael Castelli. Out-of-county Judge William Dickenson has the duty to appoint someone else to do that.
Prosecutors filed a request Wednesday for the State’s Attorney’s Office to recuse itself in the case and have a special prosecutor instead. Defense attorney Douglas Deboer disagreed with the reason that developments in the case put Donnelly and staff in the conflicted position of having to defend Judge H. Chris Ryan who recused himself last year. Deboer called it an 11th hour election year move to buy time in a case that ought to be dropped. He said the state wants to delay the case until after the election.
Dickenson found the timing suspect, but he said the law doesn’t give him any power to decline the state’s request. He expects to take six to eight weeks to contact public agencies, starting with the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, and then private attorneys if necessary to find a special prosecutor. Shannon’s case is to be in court again on August 13th.
The case has hit some big snags since Judge Ryan found Shannon guilty in 2018 of killing Castelli during a fight the year before. Before Shannon was sentenced, his lawyers raised issues about Ryan’s wife being the court reporter for the case. Two out-of-county judges have since said they don’t believe Ryan was motivated to convict so that his wife could make more money selling transcripts to a convicted defendant trying to appeal. Even so, Judge Ryan recused himself to protect the public’s confidence in the court system. Judge Dickenson tossed the conviction and reset the case to pre-trial status.
An upset Deboer allegedly lashed out at Donnelly before Thursday’s hearing. Donnelly told Judge Dickenson that Deboer approached her in a threatening manner and yelled an obscenity at her. Deboer was frustrated that Donnelly’s office filed its recusal motion the day before what was supposed to be a hearing on Deboer’s motion to dismiss the charges. That hearing is now postponed until whoever is chosen to prosecute reviews the case material. It won’t be taken up yet at the hearing in August.