Man Sentenced To 5 Years For Stalking DuPage County Judge
CHICAGO (STMW) -- A west suburban man has been sentenced to five years in prison for stalking a DuPage County Circuit Court judge and her family.
John Euwema, 58, was sentenced to five years in the Illinois Department of Corrections after he pleaded guilty to one Class 4 felony count of stalking and one count of interfering with the duty of a judicial officer for harassing Judge Kathryn Creswell, according to a statement from the DuPage County State's Attorney's office.
Euwema, of the 3900 block of Central Avenue in Western Springs, mailed a package containing a book, a letter and cash to Creswell's home on July 26, 2013, while his case was pending for a previous charge of driving with a revoked license, prosecutors said.
On Sept. 20, 2013, Euwema sent an email to the judge's husband asking him to deliver an attached letter to the judge, prosecutors said. That same day, he surrendered himself to the DuPage County Jail to begin a 90-day sentence that Creswell had handed down two days earlier after he pleaded guilty to the charge.
Investigators from the state's attorney's office and the DuPage County Sheriff's office later found ammunition, newspaper articles relating to Creswell and a photograph of one of her family members at Euwema's place of business, prosecutors said.
"Any threatening or harassing contact with an officer of the Court will carry significant consequences, as Mr. Euwema learned today," DuPage County State's Attorney Robert B. Berlin said in the statement. "The fair and impartial administration of justice requires that the judiciary be allowed to perform their duties free from harassment or fear of retribution."
In addition to the sentence for the stalking charges, Euwema has been sentenced to one consecutive year in prison after admitting that he violated his probation on the driving with a revoked license charge, prosecutors said.
Euwema, who has been held without bail since Nov. 18, 2013, will be required to serve half of his sentence before being eligible for parole, the state's attorney's office said. The judge and her family also have a lifetime restraining order against him.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2014. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)