Judge's husband and mother found dead in her home

[captainjoe]

Matt Hale is from the town that I live in. This is huge news here in Peoria, Illinois!


CHICAGO - A federal judge who was once the target of a failed murder plot by a white supremacist was under marshals’ protection Tuesday after the shooting deaths of her husband and 89-year-old mother, and investigators were looking into possible connections to hate groups, among other leads.

U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow found the bodies of Michael F. Lefkow, 65, and her mother, Donna Humphrey, 89, when she returned home from work Monday evening, according to authorities and friends.

White supremacist Matthew Hale, 33, who was convicted in April 2004 of soliciting an undercover FBI informant to kill her, is awaiting sentencing on murder solicitation and obstruction of justice.

Authorities acknowledged the possibility that hate groups could be involved in the killings but cautioned against early conclusions.

“There is much speculation about possible links between this crime and the possible involvement of hate groups. This is but one facet of our investigation,” James Malloy, Chicago’s chief of detectives, said at a news conference.

“We are looking in every direction and will follow the evidence wherever it takes us,” he said.

Victims shot in head, source says
A source close to the investigation, who spoke with the Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said the victims were shot in the head, though Malloy declined to comment on any specifics of the investigation.

No weapon was recovered, but police found two .22-caliber shell casings at the scene, another source told the AP, also speaking on condition of anonymity. That source also said police found that a window had been broken at the house.

Malloy said police believe the killings occurred sometime between 10:30 a.m., when Humphrey spoke to a grandaughter on the phone, and shortly before Lefkow discovered the bodies about 5:30 p.m. The Lefkows' daughter entered the home and retrieved a bag containing her gym clothes and did not see anyone home at the time, he said.

Judge Lefkow was targeted several years ago by Hale.

Anger over copyright ruling alleged
Prosecutors charged that Hale was angry because Lefkow ruled that he could no longer use the name World Church of the Creator for his group since another organization had a copyright on that name.

Judge Lefkow received police protection after Hale was arrested in 2003, and a spokeswoman for the U.S. Marshal's Service said at Tuesday's news conference that a special protection detail also was assigned to the judge for several weeks last year in response to an unspecified threat. The detail was removed after an investigation, the spokeswoman said.

Hale had become notorious in 1999 when a follower, Benjamin Smith, went on a deadly shooting rampage in Illinois and Indiana. Targeting minorities, Smith killed two people, including former Northwestern University basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong, and wounded nine others before killing himself as police closed in.

Hale’s reaction to Smith’s three-day shooting spree — Hale laughed about it and imitated gunfire in secretly recorded tapes played for the jury — was part of the prosecution’s case last year.

FBI involved in probe
Members of a Chicago police forensics team pored over the inside of the two-story Lefkow home on the city’s North Side late Monday evening, wearing white clothing and surgical-style headgear.

FBI spokesman Ross Rice confirmed that agents had been called in to help with the investigation but provided no further details.

The Lefkows were active in the Episcopal church.

“This is a real shock. I’m really saddened and outraged. I hope the people responsible will be apprehended soon,” said William Persell, bishop of the Chicago Diocese of the Episcopal Church.

Neighbors described the Lefkows as a model family. “This is someone who adored his daughters,” Nan Sullivan said. “They were the kind of family everyone aspires to be, very close-knit, very supportive.”

Hale never testified during his two-week trial in the murder plot. His defense attorney, Thomas Anthony Durkin, called no witnesses, saying the prosecution’s evidence was the weakest he had seen in a major case.

Undercover informant recorded conversations
A key witness, Anthony Evola, testified he secretly taped Hale for the FBI while posing as a follower. Among the conversations were ones in which they discussed the judge.

“Are we gonna exterminate the rat?” Evola can be heard asking Hale, who responds a short time later: “I’m going to fight within the law and, but, ... if you wish to, ah, do anything, yourself, you can.”

The defense argued that Hale never asked anyone to kill the judge and that the FBI used Evola to draw him into a murder plot.

Lefkow served as a federal magistrate and a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge before President Clinton nominated her for the District Court bench in 2000.

Michael Lefkow was a graduate of North Central College in Naperville and earned a law degree from Northwestern University. The two married in 1975, and he ran unsuccessfully for Cook County judge in 2002, according the Tribune.

[DonnaKayDunbar]

This story is messed up.

[iuparrothead]

Ben Smith parked right in front of my house in Bloomington waiting for the church service to end where he shot one of the victims on his shooting spree in '99.

[Drumkat]

watched this on WGN tonight. I cant even imagine how horrible this must be for them.

Sad

[ragtopW]

.22 used??? either a pro or someone pretty sure of what he/she is doing..

[ejr]

The news reports are saying it was a planned, premeditated killing. The police are being fairly quiet about things and not pointing any fingers though they say there are lots of clues, including fingerprints.

I remember being home, alone the weekend of the shootings in CHicago-the basketball coach that was killed lived about 8 blocks from me, and this guy had been driving around the streets of Rogers Park in CHicago, and Skokie, both areas being largely a Jewish population. I have an orthodox temple within two blocks of my house, and I did not leave my house that weekend until I knew that the shooter was not out there. This brings up all of that horror.

I feel so for this judge, who did her job honorably and may be paying an enormous price for it.

[iuparrothead]

This brings up all of that horror.

Yep. I wasn't in Bloomington that weekend in '99, but when I got home, there was police tape everywhere... he practically waited in my driveway. That was a very emotional couple of weeks afterwards.

[buffettbride]

The mother of the judge lives(d) in the town where I grew up, Lakewood, CO.

I heard briefly on the news this morning that they don't necessarily think it was a member of the white supremicist group that did it, but kind of a silent supporter of that group. They gave some special name to that kind of freaky fanatic but now I can't remember it.

Very sad.