The man who served six decades in prison for one of three murders at Starved Rock State Park says he felt harassed when a Minonk nurse kept calling him at a Chicago veterans hospital and eventually showed up at his home in LaSalle. Eighty-two year old Chester Weger took Brooke VanCoppenolle to court and got an order of protection against her. LaSalle County Judge Michelle Vescogni approved a two-year no-contact order today.
VanCoppenolle testified that she was trying to help Weger find a place to stay and protect him from financial abuse when she tried to get to know him. Weger was at a halfway house and then the veterans hospital during that time. But Weger and his family didn’t want the help and didn’t appreciate her trying to get him to leave the veterans hospital without his parole officer’s permission. That could have gotten him back into his old living arrangements in the Illinois prison system.
VanCoppenolle is not related to Weger and didn’t know him before he was on parole. Judge Vescogni said she found it strange that VanCoppenolle would contact Weger out of the blue and offer to help him. The judge said she also found it strange that the woman would keep calling Weger perhaps 20 times over a six month period. Vescogni ruled that the behavior is what she can use her power to shield Weger from under Illinois laws against stalking and harassment.
Asserting that she wasn’t stalking Weger, Van Coppenolle objected to the word’s use. The judge said the law that uses the term also prohibits other behaviors that aren’t considered stalking, but which are harassing.