Court Watch: Murder-for-Hire, Sexual Exploitation of Teens, Pipe Bomb Plot
Here's a look at some major DuPage County court cases, including a former Wheaton man charged with hiring a fellow inmate to kill two public officials and two others, and a Naperville man's sexual exploitation trial.
Wheaton: A judge ruled that DuPage prosecutors used an improper tactic to bring a murder-for-hire suspect in for questioning. However, Judge George Bakalis decided the information obtained in the interview, and ultimately the charges filed against Gordon Vanderark, would have been no different if the tactic had not been used, records show. Vanderark is charged with trying to hire a fellow prison inmate to kill a DuPage County Judge and assistant state's attorney tied to a previous felony conviction that landed Vanderark in prison. Prosecutors used a confidential source to learn about Vanderark's plan and set up a "ruse" hearing on an unrelated issue to have Vanderark brought back from the Centralia Correctional Center. Once in DuPage, …
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