June 9th meeting

The June 9th meeting should be extremely interesting. Dennis Shere will talk about his experience as a defense attorney on the Brown's Chicken massacre trial.

This would be a great meting to bring a friend who may be interestred in what Mr Shere has to say.

From the Journal & Topics Editor newspaper

'A Fascinating Experience'

Rotarians Hear Defense Attorney's Insight On Brown's Chicken Massacre

By TODD WESSELL Journal & Topics Editor

Nearly two years after the first defendant in the 1993 Brown's Chicken massacre was convicted of murder, the second defendant is scheduled to go on trial beginning Apr. 12.

James Degorski, who in 1993 was 20-years-old, is accused of murder in the massacre of seven Brown's Chicken employees in Palatine during the late evening hours of Jan. 8 more than 16 years ago. Juan Luna was convicted of murder on May 8, 2007. He avoided being executed when one of 12 jurors held out against the death penalty. Degorski is currently being held in Cook County Jail awaiting his trial set to begin in less than three weeks. Luna is confined to Joliet State Penitentiary hoping one day to get a new trial, according to attorney Dennis Shere. "It's called manufactured hope," he said.

Approximately 25 members of the Park Ridge Rotary Club last week listened as Shere give a 30-minute presentation on Luna's 2007 court case. Shere was involved in that trial as a contract attorney for the defense.

A former Ohio newspaper publisher and Kane County public defender, Shere joined Luna's defense team in January 2004. One of his first jobs was to comb through 300,000 pages of court records to see if he could sift out any clues that might help the defense team. He currently is working on a book about the types of challenges lawyers face when working on defense cases.

"I was always interested in the case," Shere told Rotarians at last week's gathering at Summit Square in Park Ridge. "The state had an overwhelming case against Luna. They had DNA on chicken bones and a partial palm print of his at the scene. There were also two women who had talked to the police and there was a 43 minute videotaped confession given by Luna that was devastating." In that confession, Shere explained, "he admitted to slitting one of the owner's throats while Degorski was shooting people."

After Luna's conviction, the jury was told to determine whether he should be put to death or spend the rest of his life behind bars.

"The state argued why he should die," said Shere. "They said he was involved in multiple killings, that he killed someone and that the crime was cold and calculated. We argued that there was no proof he actually killed someone. We claimed the stabbing of the owner, a woman, would not have killed her." The owner, they believe, died of gunshot wounds.

After spending six hours to reach a verdict of guilty, the jury spent two more hours to decide that he should not be put to death. Eleven jurors felt he should die, but one woman felt otherwise. A unanimous verdict is required. The other jurors, Shere felt, were not willing to fight on for a death sentence adding that he believes "some jurors were secretly happy that one of them was not willing to go along with the others." The lone hold out was a 28-year-old mother of two small children who had worked at a fast food restaurant.

"It was a fascinating experience," said Shere. "I wish I could have been involved in it at age 30 rather than 63." He added that he spent some time with Luna at Statesville about a month ago.

Mayor speaks at Kiwanis meeting

12 12 May 2009

Marty Moylan (left photo), our new Mayor spoke to us today at our regular meeting.

Also at today's meeting we inducted Nancy Reiser into the club. Left photo (from left) Barb Ryan (Nancy's sponser), Nancy, John Burke (President) and Jim Grady (Lieutenant governor elect) performed the induction ceremony.

Help with the Postal Service Food Drive

Volunteers needed at the Des Plaines Food Pantry
Saturday, May 9.

For volunteers based at the post office 11:00 AM

For volunteers based at the Food Pantry – after 1:00 PM
At the Food Pantry they hope to be working until about 6:00 PM
If you can not be there at 1:00 please come when you can.

What Kiwanis Clubs strive to accomplish

• To give primacy to the human and spiritual rather than the material values of life.
• To encourage the daily living of the Golden Rule in all human relationships
• To promote the adoption and the application of higher social, business and professional standards.
• To develop, by precept and example, a more intelligent, aggressive, and serviceable citizenship.
• To provide, through Kiwanis Clubs, a practical means to form enduring friendships, to render altruistic service, and to build better communities.
• To cooperate in creating and maintaining that sound public opinion and high idealism which make possible the increase of righteousness, justice, patriotism, and goodwill.

John Burke, President (Left) and Joel Bloom, President Elect (right) receive the check form Luis Gonzales, Manager, Sam's Club to help support the shoe/boot program

Other local upcoming events (to add an event contact Dr Mike Bagby)

25 April - Do the Dewey - at the Library

May 31 - The Northwest Symphony Orchestra's final concert of the 2008-09 season will be held at 3:30 PM at Maine West High School. Aat 2:30 PM that afternoon, Mrs. Carolyn Paulin, wife of our music director, will conduct a discussion about the day's program in a study hall near the theater. These are always very informative. NSO concerts always finish by 5:30 PM.

The featured artist is a high school student by the name of Allan Steele, a member of the Chicago Youth Symphony who'll perform Dvorak's Cello Concerto.

Additional information about the Northwest Symphony is always available at www.northwestsymphony.org.

The Kiwanis Club of Des Plaines Fits 250 Children with Shoes this Winter

From the March April edition of the Illeiowan - -

The Kiwanis Club of Des Plaines raised over $8,000 in for their annual Shoe/Boot Program. The $8,000 represents more than 1/3 of the total $20,000 raised and distributed, primarily from collections on Kiwanis Peanut Day in September, to community services and organizations.

The Des Plaines Kiwanis Club works with social workers from District 62 to identify elementary school children in need, who could not otherwise afford protective footwear for the winter months. This year more than 250 children received shoes and boots. Over the past eight years, more than 1,000 children have benefited from the Des Plaines Kiwanis Club’s Shoe/Boot Program, which grows in popularity annually.

Since its inception, the program has been supported by Square Deal Family Shoe Store in Des Plaines. Square Deal discounts the cost of the shoes to the Kiwanis Club and coordinates fitting the children selected for the Program. “We don’t just sell shoes, we fit them one pair at a time,” said Maurice Gerber, store manager.

“In addition to fundraisers and private donations to support the long running Shoe/Boot Program in Des Plaines, The Des Plaines Kiwanis Club was awarded a $4,500 grant last year from The Kiwanis International Foundation,” said Gayle Mountcastle, Des Plaines Kiwanis Club Shoe/Boot coordinator.
She added, “

The Kiwanis Club of Des Plaines is committed to this unique project that reflects our mission of changing the world one child and one community at a time.”