Waukegan police arrest man for domestic battery with evidence of bodily harm. Man stands trial. Lewis Gainor defends him. Jury says not guilty. Download the court records 

 

In 2006 Lewis Gainor successfully defended a man at trial accused of domestic battery. The client was a young man who was in a dating relationship with a woman in Waukegan. The couple’s relationship was ending on bad terms. Both parties were spiteful and hurt.

 

 

On the night of June 7, 2006, the couple had a very passionate argument. Lewis Gainor’s client had decided to leave the woman, and she was very upset.

 

The dispatch at the Waukegan Police Department received an emergency call from the woman. She had dialed 911 in a state of hysteria, screaming and crying. The police dispatched several squad cars to the scene, which was an apartment building.

 

 When the police officers entered the apartment building, they saw immediately that this was no ordinary domestic battery call. The kitchen floor was covered with blood. There were weapons - knives - on the floor. The woman who had dialed 911 had injuries to her face which would require emergency surgery. The police officers documented the scene with color photos that would eventually find their way in front of a jury.

 

Lewis Gainor’s client had already fled the apartment complex on foot. The police took his information from the woman and sought an arrest warrant. They caught up with him at his residence, and placed him under arrest.

 

In an unusual sequence of events, it took only one and one-half months before the case was called for jury trial. Ordinarily, in criminal cases, it takes much longer, up to six months and beyond, for the charges to be tried. But in this case, the defendant wanted a trial.

 

For background, the man had initially retained another attorney. That lawyer advised him that, with the State’s bloody photographs and the injuries to the woman, the jury would find him guilty. He suggested that the man plead guilty. Because of this, the man sought out Lake County trial attorney Lewis Gainor to take the case to jury.

 

The trial began in mid-July 2006. The prosecution presented very serious evidence, including an audio recording of the woman’s frantic 911 call. It was a tense trial. The Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office was seeking a jail sentence. 

 

Attorney Lewis Gainor stood before the jury and delivered his closing argument. The problem with the State’s case, he said, was that there was no proof of who was the attacker in the kitchen. Blood on the floor tells you there was an attack, but it doesn’t tell you who was the victim. It was my client, he said, that was the victim, and she called 911 at the first opportunity to establish her alibi.

 

Not guilty.