A lawsuit filed against three retired Normal Police officers by a Rockford man exonerated in the killing of his former girlfriend may be handled by a judge in McLean County, if the Illinois Supreme Court grants a request to return the case to a local judge.
In his 2014 lawsuit filed in McLean County, Alan Beaman accused former Normal detectives Tim Freesmeyer, Frank Zayas and Dave Warner with conspiring to frame him in the 1993 strangulation death of Jennifer Lockmiller. The Town of Normal is also named in the lawsuit.
Beaman served a dozen years of a 50-year sentence before his conviction was overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court.
In a motion filed Friday with the Illinois Supreme Court, lawyers for Beaman and the officers ask that a McLean County judge be named to replace retiring Douglas County Judge Richard Broch who was appointed to handle the case because of conflicts with McLean County judges. Former prosecutors James Souk, Robert Freitag and Charles Reynard, all retired McLean County judges, and current judge William Yoder, were among jurists with previous involvement in Beaman’s case.
Souk, Reynard and Freitag are expected to be called as witnesses by Beaman’s lawyers, according to previous motions.
According to the recent court filing, Broch told lawyers for both sides of his retirement plans during a Feb. 22 status hearing, which was scheduled to set a trial date. Last year, Beaman’s lawyers tried unsuccessfully to convince Broch to recuse himself from the case following a ruling by the judge to dismiss the lawsuit.
The motion asks that 11th Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Casey Costigan be allowed to appoint a local judge to hear the civil case. A trial before a McLean County jury is expected this year.
Beaman has maintained his innocence of the murder charges that sent him to prison shortly after his graduation from Illinois Wesleyan University. The state alleged that Beaman killed Lockmiller, an Illinois State University student, in a jealous rage over her romance with another man. Evidence at Beaman’s trial included a police theory that Beaman made the trip from his home in Rockford to Normal at a high rate of speed, murdered Lockmiller, and returned before his mother finished a round of errands.
Beaman has been granted clemency and a certificate of innocence by the state.
