Retired Woodstock North High School PE Teacher Exonerted

James Guttridge

I made a mistake in the first sentence in this article I posted too fast on Friday before we left for a trip to Galena for the weekend. The headline was correct. I left out the word “not,” as in “not guilty” in the first sentence. My apologies to Mr. Guttridge for my big mistake.

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James Guttridge was found NOT guilty in a directed verdict by Judge Joseph Condon in McHenry County Circuit Court on Thursday.

Guttridge was arrested by Woodstock Police last January.

District 200 issued this statement about the arrest.

This is the third directed verdict victory for the former Woodstock North High School gym teacher’s attorney, Terry Ekl.

His first two were in his defense of McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi when he was tried on criminal charges by Special Prosecutors Henry Tonigan and Thomas McQueen.

A directed verdict means that the Judge did not think the prosecution was good enough to merit the defense having to present evidence.

When asked about the verdict, Ekl wrote,

“He [Judge Condon] stated in his finding that he declined to believe the girl’s story.

“Too many inconsistencies and too much impeachment.”


Comments

Retired Woodstock North High School PE Teacher Exonerted — 2 Comments

  1. Cal, re-read your post. In the first sentance of the text you say he was found GUILTY. I think you ment to say he was found NOT GUILTY-a directed verdict in favor of the defense, right?

  2. Correct.

    I made the correction after getting back from Galena for the weekend and apologized at the top of the article.

    The headline was correct.

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