Hobbs To Sue Lake County For Botching Murder Case
ZION (WBBM) -- A former Zion resident who spent five years in jail while wrongfully charged with murdering his daughter and another girl, will file a lawsuit against Lake County law enforcement officials.
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Laura Hobbs, 8, and Krystal Tobias, 9, were found stabbed to death in Zion on Mother's Day, 2005. Laura Hobbs' father, Jerry, was charged with the two girls' murders. He was released in August because DNA evidence implicated another man.
Attention in the murders is now focused on Jorge Torrez, 21, a former U.S. Marine and former Zion resident. His DNA has been linked to the crime scene. He was recently convicted of kidnapping and raping a college student in Virginia.
According to the lawsuit, police officers physically assaulted and psychologically abused Hobbs until he succumbed to their demands to fabricate a confession to the murders.
Relying on the false confession, Lake County prosecutors subsequently sought the death penalty against Hobbs and resisted pleas to release him for three years after DNA evidence failed to link Hobbs to the crime, according to the suit.
The suit seeks unspecified damages for the trauma inflicted on Hobbs as a result of these acts, which violated his civil rights.
