From the 3/2/07 Daily Herald:
By Tony Gordon
Posted Friday, March 02, 2007
Lake County authorities arrested a Volo woman Thursday and accused her of lying on the witness stand during a criminal trial.
Elizabeth Post, 25, is charged with perjury and was released on a signature bond after appearing before Circuit Judge Valerie Boettle Ceckowski.
State’s attorney’s office investigator Lou Archbold said Post testified last fall during the trial of a Spring Grove man accused in a road rage incident.
Archbold said Post stated repeatedly during the trial of Keith Olbie, 46, that she did not know the man Olbie was accused of attacking July 12 in Wauconda.
In fact, Archbold said, Post and the victim, Brian Steeves, 24, had bought a house together about a month before the incident.
State’s Attorney Michael Waller said his office did not consider the fact that Post had testified for the prosecution in Olbie’s trial when investigating her.
“The integrity of the court system requires people to tell the truth under oath, no matter who they are testifying for,” Waller said. “If a perjury case can be proven, we are going to charge whoever is behind it.”
Archbold said Post and Steeves were in separate vehicles when they encountered Olbie about 3 p.m. along Route 12.
Steeves accused Olbie of cutting off Post’s car and aggressively tailgating his while shouting threats.
Olbie told police Steeves had thrown a soft drink can at his car. Both men were standing on the shoulder of the road pushing and shoving each other when police arrived.
Olbie was charged with battery and reckless conduct and was convicted of reckless conduct after a bench trial before Associate Judge Mitchell Hoffman on Oct. 11. Hoffman sentenced Olbie to two weeks in jail and one year of probation.
But Archbold said Olbie’s attorney, Anthony Lombardo of Des Plaines, smelled a rat and had a private investigator check out Post. The investigator discovered the mortgage application Post and Steeves filled out for their home at 223 Terra Firma Lane on June 20, Archbold said.
Lombardo filed a motion for a new trial, which Hoffman granted Jan. 4, and prosecutors responded by dropping all charges against Olbie.
Archbold then started his own investigation of Post and said he was able to verify the private investigator’s information.
“There was really no question about it; the signatures of both people on the application were identical to those we had in the file,” he said. “Based on the fact that she was the only person who testified against Olbie, we had no other choice but to drop the charges.”
Post was arrested at her home Thursday morning, Archbold said, and confessed to the ruse in an interview he conducted.
Ceckowski told Post, who has no prior criminal record, that she faces up to five years in prison if convicted and ordered her to appear in court again April 11.
Her attorney, Douglas Zeit of Waukegan, declined comment.
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