Illinois
How a school board race in the blue state of Illinois became a nationally funded cage match – The Boston Globe
The outlines of the battle have been clear one grey April day on the intersection of Primary Avenue and Route 59 within the coronary heart of downtown. On one nook, braving the nippiness, was a cluster of a few dozen residents urging voters to reelect incumbents, together with Leah Collister-Lazzari, to the College Board. They toted indicators with a touch of the election’s driving controversy: “No guide bans” and “For all of the books” — a reference to an effort to ban sure books from the varsity library.
However this low-key crew had competitors gathering throughout the road.
That well-dressed crowd, with balloons and American flags and “Born within the USA” as their soundtrack, was louder, extra quite a few, and shortly had taken over the opposite three corners of the intersection. They have been pushing a slate of conservative newcomers to city politics for the board of schooling, hoping to flip its majority to the proper.
Paying attention to the Springsteen anthem booming from throughout the best way, one in all Collister-Lazzari’s supporters muttered to a different tensely, “They haven’t listened to the phrases of this music, have they?”
Colllister-Lazzari and her supporters felt engulfed, all however confined to the village gazebo the place a city banner proclaiming “We Belong to Every Different,” fluttered overhead. That unsettling feeling has grown acquainted of late. The village they knew had turn into a entrance in one thing a lot greater than Barrington.
“It’s horrible, and it’s simply so divisive,” Collister-Lazzari mentioned, reflecting on friendships damaged by the political divide. “{That a} small native election is getting nationwide protection, it’s not regular, and it doesn’t bode properly for the long run.”
What had come to Barrington was a neighborhood extension of a well-funded effort by nationwide political operatives to reshape American politics at its most elementary stage: management over how youngsters are educated in public colleges. It’s a well chosen battlefield, wealthy with dividing traces together with methods to accommodate — or not — trans and queer college students and their wants, which model of American historical past needs to be advised, and what books college students needs to be allowed to learn.
Across the nation, conservative-aligned teams have harnessed parental angst, already at a excessive pitch amid the pandemic, to achieve seats on faculty boards. Now, these teams are fueling extra contentious races with cable TV-amplified controversies, candidate coaching, and a flood of marketing campaign cash past what many municipalities have ever identified.
Liberals, long-allied with lecturers unions and public faculty teams, see a dire menace to public schooling as they’ve identified it and have scrambled to maintain up. Conservatives see it in any other case, after all. To them, the battle in Barrington heralds lengthy overdue change.
In Barrington, residents assume their expertise needs to be a warning bell for cities throughout.
“In our neighborhood, which is actually pleasant and very nice, it acquired a bit tough,” Terese Kenan, 56, a neighborhood landlord. “I positively want to see the temperature come down. I don’t assume it’s coming down anytime quickly, although, primarily based on how issues are going right here.”
Barrington’s municipal elections, that are nonpartisan, weren’t all the time an thrilling affair. Collister-Lazzari famous that her first yr on the College Board, after her election in 2019, was largely what she had anticipated when she ran: quiet, well mannered, and targeted on native district points.
Then got here the COVID pandemic.
As American life floor to a halt, faculty shutdowns nationwide stretched from weeks to months.
It was a making an attempt time. Household houses abruptly turned each places of work and school rooms. In school board conferences, frustration and anger boiled into the open, and conservatives have been quickly the loudest voices demanding that colleges reopen. In addition they demanded that when youngsters returned to school rooms, masks needs to be non-obligatory — a notion that sparked deep divides amongst mother and father.
The reworking potential of such conflicts was underscored by Republican Glenn Youngkin’s win for governor in 2021 in Virginia, a state that had beforehand appeared solidly Democratic. His victory was interpreted as a referendum on schooling.
To these on the proper, it appeared a mannequin to duplicate, a major political alternative to construct on at the same time as COVID considerations ebbed.
One group, the 1776 Challenge PAC, fashioned in early 2021 with a mission of supporting native board candidates taking over faculty applications supporting range and inclusion.
Since 2021, the PAC has expanded its push to maneuver faculty boards to the proper and has spent almost $4 million to assist native candidates, with almost $1 million of it coming from one Illinois-based megadonor, Richard Uihlein. It’s a small sum by nationwide election requirements however an enormous quantity to pour into faculty board races, the place fund-raising usually stays within the tons of of {dollars}.
Different like-minded teams have grown nationwide together with Mothers for Liberty, a parent-driven advocacy group that was fashioned in opposition to highschool masks mandates and COVID-related closures however now focuses on defeating trans- and LGBT-inclusive faculty insurance policies. Mothers for America Motion, which has an antifeminist mission, additionally makes faculty board candidate endorsements.
Nationwide Republicans have taken notice of the teams’ native successes.
In Washington, D.C., Home Republicans took up the banner shortly upon taking up nearly all of the chamber this yr, passing a “Parental Invoice of Rights” in late March that may, amongst different issues, require mother and father to be advised what pronouns or gender identification their little one is utilizing in school.
Barrington was stunned to search out itself a case examine on this political crossfire.
Democrat Consultant Mike Quigley, who represents Barrington, mentioned he has lengthy seen native political races like these for varsity boards as no place for nationwide politicians. However these races have been now on his radar.
“We used to say all politics is native,” Quigley mentioned. “All politics is nationwide now.”
District 220, because it’s identified within the state, is positioned on the politically purple, northwest fringe of the reliably Democratic Chicago suburbs. It’s a middle- to upper-class assortment of villages like Barrington that embrace stately mansion communities, sprawling farmhouse estates, and modest subdivisions. Most of the residents say they moved to the realm particularly for the faculties, that are thought of a number of the finest within the state, boasting distinguished alumni together with Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.
The 2 incumbents on this yr’s race have been first elected in 2019. Collister-Lazzari, a lawyer and actual property dealer, and Barry Altshuler, a neighborhood pediatrician, have been longtime mother and father and volunteers within the district who ran for the board after they turned empty nesters and had a while to spare.
However their expectations for public service have been shattered with the pandemic. Throughout the peak of the COVID lockdowns, faculty board conferences grew so unstable that members obtained police escorts to their automobiles.
Motivated by the rising conflict of values, a bunch of conservative mother and father fashioned a political motion committee to assist candidates in native races in late 2020, calling themselves Motion PAC. In 2021, two of its candidates received Barrington College Board seats.
In the meantime, native considerations tracked — and have been fueled by — the nationwide dialog. By summer time 2022, board conferences have been nonetheless explosive, however with new subjects. Books, largely these with LGBT content material, dominated a collection of summer time conferences.
At one, Nelda Munoz joined a parade of oldsters as she spoke of her dismay when she discovered that her center schooler had been given a summer time studying record that included “Gender Queer,” a graphic novel of the writer’s exploration of their gender and sexuality that features some express scenes. The subsequent day, a clip of her remarks on Tik Tok was picked up by the conservative favourite “Libs of Tik Tok” Twitter account, and ultimately acquired greater than 1 million views. The superintendent defined that the summer time studying e-mail obtained by mother and father didn’t particularly suggest “Gender Queer,” however that the novel had been included in exterior guide award lists offered to center schoolers. That rationalization did nothing to tamp down the controversy, which continued on-line and in individual all summer time.
Ultimately, the prevailing board narrowly voted to maintain the disputed books in the highschool library. However the controversy had energized a slate of political challengers who noticed a chance to flip the board if they might oust Collister-Lazzari or Altshuler. Munoz filed to run.
Motion PAC offered a slate of native mother and father for the three open seats: Leonard Munson, a neighborhood businessman; Katey Baldassano, a enterprise proprietor and longtime schooling skilled; and Matt Sheriff, a gross sales skilled. All three mentioned they thought of the College Board to be “dismissive” of neighborhood enter and never targeted sufficient on bettering the faculties.
They explicitly denied supporting guide bans, although all have been in favor of higher restrictions on some books, together with “Gender Queer.” Sheriff acquired concerned after a good friend at his gymnasium confirmed him the sexually express photographs in one of many books out there to excessive schoolers — “he began displaying me photographs and I couldn’t imagine it,” Sheriff mentioned.
Munson was an outspoken advocate of reopening colleges and non-obligatory masking throughout COVID lockdowns. In his marketing campaign, he additionally cited declining check scores, although the varsity district stays among the many finest within the state.
Cash and out of doors assets poured in to again them. Motion PAC raised over $60,000 for its candidates within the College Board, Library Board, and Village Trustee races.
In addition they utilized for endorsements from the conservative teams that had sprung up nationally. That included the 1776 Challenge PAC, which despatched out marketing campaign messages supporting the rebel Barrington slate.
“That is one thing [that] if conservatives get mobilized and so they get out to vote, they’ll hold their hat on,” 1776 Challenge PAC founder Ryan Girdusky mentioned in a preelection interview.
However the three board challengers rejected the notion that they’d nationwide or political ties, arguing they have been the victims of a left-driven smear marketing campaign to color them as “extremists”.
“We aren’t political operatives,” Baldassano mentioned in a preelection interview. “We’re three mother and father who need nice issues for our youngsters and our neighbors’ youngsters.”
Motion PAC as a substitute argued the liberal facet of the race was the one with partisan firepower behind it.
That they had some proof for this cost. Democrats and left-leaning teams had taken notice of the heavy exercise on the conservative facet, and, with the assist of Governor J.B. Pritzker and the state Democratic Social gathering, devoted cash to highschool board races. The cash helped pay for get-out-the-vote textual content messages in Barrington supporting Altshuler and Collister-Lazzari.
It felt, on each side, like an existential battle, with the way forward for Barrington at stake.
Candidates noticed nefarious motives hiding behind their opponents folksy veneers. There have been tales of damaged friendships and of neighborhood divisions over yard indicators.
With these onerous emotions and passions got here one other import from nationwide politics: downright nastiness.
Activists flinging private assaults confirmed up at College Board boards; some mailers, and social media feedback, had a viscious edge. Altshuler, a longtime and well-regarded pediatrician, was repeatedly referred to as a pedophile for his place on the books in the highschool library. Even one in all Collister-Lazzari’s grownup youngsters was attacked in Fb feedback. And one resident who spoke out in favor of retaining the controversial books obtained a one-word Fb message from a stranger: “Pervert.”
Shahnaz Kelleher, a 42-year-old full-time mother and caregiver to growing older mother and father from Deer Park, had bother holding again her feelings as she recalled the toll the entire expertise had taken.
“You all the time assume, like, these issues can’t occur right here,” Kelleher mentioned. “These are our pals, these are our neighbors, these are our youngsters’ soccer coaches.”
Conservatives mentioned they have been additionally being smeared and caricatured, lamenting mailers and feedback that painted them as extremists.
“Our rivals … they’re managed by unions,” Sheriff mentioned. “The governor of Illinois got here straight out … and referred to as us conservative crazies. … He threw a half one million {dollars} into native faculty board races and accused us of getting darkish cash.”
Pritzker had mentioned of his funding in such races on CBS’s “Face the Nation” in March: “They’ve acquired lots of excessive proper wing candidates, frankly, on the loopy finish of issues. … We simply need to make it possible for folks know who they’re and know to not vote for them.”
On election day, the infected native politics yielded higher-than-usual turnout within the College Board race. That was obvious on the largest polling place on the town — positioned, because it occurred, on the precise spot the place Child Face Nelson was gunned down in that different Battle of Barrington. Voters of all persuasions lamented how nationwide themes and out of doors forces had bothered their as soon as tight-knit neighborhood.
“That is symptomatic of a type of battle within the nation,” mentioned Matt Moraghan, a 44-year-old Barrington resident and librarian, talking of the conservative forces. “It’s a minority voice, but it surely’s so loud.”
Two {couples} who declined to offer their names, in the meantime, decried in dramatic phrases the “sexualization of our youngsters” and inappropriate content material “foisted” upon youthful youngsters.
Chrissy Sullivan, 37, a full-time mother who sends her school-aged youngsters to a neighborhood Catholic faculty, mentioned the marketing campaign has introduced some teams collectively in frequent trigger, but in addition divided the city.
“It’s opened up all of our eyes to the truth that we must always have a voice and we must always use our voice,” mentioned Sullivan. “However on the identical time, it’s precipitated us all to assume that our beliefs are the one beliefs that stand.”
Miles Jackson, a 60-year-old retiree from North Barrington, mentioned he was dismayed by the best way the native furor over books had distorted the race.
“It’s one guide,” Jackson mentioned. “It’s not the difficulty that the College Board needs to be specializing in. The truth that america is likely one of the worst of the primary world international locations in math and science schooling, that’s what I need my College Board targeted on.”
Ultimately, a marketing campaign marked by sound and fury yielded little in the best way of change.
With polls closed, Collister-Lazzari, Altshuler, Kelleher, and their supporters gathered anxiously round Chicago pizza at a dimly lit dive bar. A visibly drained Collister-Lazzari drank white wine as her husband pulled up vote totals on his telephone and a fellow candidate for village board, Brian Prigge, up to date outcomes on his laptop computer. The early traits had them feeling glum, however out of the blue there was a change in temper — they’d pulled forward within the vote, and knew that mail-in ballots would possible favor them in days to come back.
Throughout the car parking zone, the conservative candidates have been gathered in a big restaurant, packing a non-public suite of rooms and bar upstairs. The temper was celebratory, even raucous; the one signal of the defeat that lay forward was within the expressions of a number of the PAC leaders huddled over a laptop computer and iPad. They barely interacted with these round them. And by the point the Globe reporter left round 9:30 native time, the possibilities of the election outcomes turning of their favor have been slim.
Finally, Collister-Lazzari and Altshuler and one other like-minded candidate held on, profitable their seats by a number of hundred votes. They have been probably helped by Munoz, who drew roughly 1,000 votes and will have siphoned away assist from the opposite conservatives.
Motion PAC members have been unchastened in defeat. They blamed early and mail-in voting, echoing a nationwide Republican chorus.
“Final night time we noticed what occurs when essentially the most highly effective folks and organizations within the state of Illinois work collectively to wrest management of the faculties, libraries and native places of work from the mother and father and taxpayers,” Motion PAC wrote the day after the election. “Let’s take a while to mud ourselves off and take into consideration subsequent steps.”
As Collister-Lazzari and Altshuler relocated to a close-by residence to collect with shut pals a quiet dismay nonetheless hung within the air. That they had received, however one thing they worth extra — the previous peaceable Barrington they knew and liked — appeared misplaced.
“I actually need to carry the neighborhood collectively, and I’m simply having a tough time considering, ‘Oh, that’s going to occur,’” Altshuler mentioned. “That’s what I’m going to spend the subsequent (a number of) months on. Simply actually making an attempt to … heal that divide.”
Tal Kopan will be reached at tal.kopan@globe.com. Observe her on Twitter @talkopan.
The No. 12 Michigan State Spartans (15-2, 6-0) will be featured in a pivotal top 25 Big Ten matchup as they host the No. 19 Illinois Fighting Illini (13-4, 4-2) at the Breslin Center on Sunday afternoon. For the Spartans to win their 11th-straight, they will need to accomplish these three keys.
Limit Illini Freshman Guard Kasparas Jakucionis
The Illini possess one of the top players in the country and projected first-round pick in next year’s NBA Draft. Freshman guard Kasparas Jakucionis is the real deal, leading the team in both points per game (16.7) and assists (5.4). He will be the one to cause issues against a strong Spartans defense.
Prior to joining Illinois, Jakucionis was the youngest person ever to play for the European powerhouse, Barcelona, of the ACB or Spanish Basketball Clubs Association. He holds strong experience overseas at the pro level and has the potential to be a star in the Big Ten and NBA.
It will be nearly impossible to silence the Illini’s best player, but slowing him down could be a factor in the game, especially with the lingering injury he may still have.
Jakucionis suffered a left forearm injury in the first week of January against Washington, missed the next two games, and quickly responded well with 21 points in their most recent game against Indiana. It will be telling in the first several minutes what his health status will be for the contest.
Spartans Three or More Scorers in Double Figures
The Spartans have thrived all season long in terms of scoring distribution and having multiple guys step up when they are needed. During their 10-game win streak, Michigan State has had three or more double-digit scorers in nine of those contests. They must find a way to get everyone involved.
The usual suspects have been senior guard Jaden Akins (14.2 ppg) and freshman guard Jase Richardson (9.6 ppg). It will be up to them to get the scoring started early and quickly work the rest of the roster into the scoring rotation, being effective all over the floor.
Keep Illini Under 80 Total Points
The biggest strength for this Illini team is its potent offensive attack. It is the No. 2 team in the conference in terms of average points per game at 87.3 and is the top team in the conference in point differential at +20. If the Spartans’ defense shows up, they will have a great chance to earn a win.
The magic number is 80 points for the Spartan defense. The Illini are 1-3 this season when scoring less than 80 points, the lone win coming against Oakland in a 66-54 final. They are an up-tempo group that must score big to win games.
With a Spartan offense that averages just over 81 points per game, they will need to hit their average while forcing a serviceable number of turnovers and keeping them off the board as much as. possible. Not to mention, the Illini are 14th in the Big Ten in field goal percentage (45%).
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Illinois
Allegations of a forced confession, manipulated evidence fuel Illinois day care worker’s push for clemency
Melissa Calusinski has served 16 years of a 31-year prison sentence for the death of Benjamin Kingan, a 16-month-old whom she cared for at an Illinois day care center. She has long insisted she is innocent.
“This is not where I belong,” Calusinski told “48 Hours” correspondent Erin Moriarty. “I’m gonna continue to fight no matter what ’cause I did not do this.”
“48 Hours” has been covering this case for more than a decade, and over the years, Melissa’s appeals have failed. But she and her attorney, Kathleen Zellner, are not backing down. Now, they are taking their fight out of the court system and straight to the governor of Illinois, J.B. Pritzker, and his prisoner review board.
“We’re asking them to declare that she’s actually innocent and release her. We are also saying commute her sentence,” said Zellner.
THE DEATH OF BENJAMIN KINGAN
The story began on Jan. 14, 2009. Melissa, then 22, was working as a teacher’s assistant at the Minee Subee day care in Lincolnshire, an affluent suburb of Chicago. Ben Kingan attended day care there along with his twin sister and their two older siblings.
Melissa Calusinski (2014): I came to work … And I saw Ben. He was fine, normal, happy, playful.
Late that afternoon, after the kids were fed a snack and cleaned up, Melissa says she put Ben down on the carpet and he crawled into his bouncy seat on the floor.
Melissa Calusinski (2014): He’s sittin’ in his bouncy chair, playing with his blanket. … And he was — startin’ to kinda fall asleep, which was normal.
The teacher working with Melissa stepped out of the room briefly, leaving Melissa alone with the children. That’s when Melissa says she noticed something wrong with Ben.
Melissa Calusinski (2014): He didn’t look right. … I took his little hand, and I touched his hand and I’m like, “Ben, Ben.” He did not wake up at all. … I saw orange foam … coming out of his nose, and—um I’m sorry (cries).
Melissa called for help. Her older sister, Crystal Calusinski, also worked at the day care at the time.
Crystal Calusinski: I hear … on the intercom, “someone help me, help me, help me.” … I ran in … then started CPR immediately.
Erin Moriarty: What was that like for you Crystal?
Crystal Calusinski: I dream about it a lot. (Emotional) … Like, I see it in my, you know, my head.
911 was called.
BETH KATZ TO 911: I have a child who was—uh, who’s foaming, who’s not breathing.
Paramedics responded. Ben was taken to the hospital. He was pronounced dead an hour later.
Melissa Calusinski (2014): Me and my sister fell to the floor and were just — were just bawling. … What happened to him and how? I don’t — I don’t understand.
An investigation was launched. According to the police report, during an autopsy, the pathologist, Dr. Eupil Choi, told a detective that he observed a skull fracture, extensive bleeding inside Ben’s head, and that the injury “was caused by another person,” using “strong force,” “within hours prior to” Ben’s death. And yet, Ben had no cuts or obvious wounds on the outside of his body, no serious bruises. The pathologist listed the autopsy as “pending further studies.” Police brought in the day care workers who had been with the toddler on the day of his death determined to find out what happened to Ben.
DETECTIVE (to Crystal Calusinski): Somebody did something to him.
After Melissa was read her rights, detectives began pressing her for answers.
DET. SEAN CURRAN (interrogation): I have a good idea that you’ve seen what happened or you were involved with what happened ’cause you were the only one in the room at the onset of this.
Melissa denied over and over again — more than 60 times — doing anything to Ben.
MELISSA CALUSINSKI (interrogation): I never put my hands on him… (crying) … I did not drop him.
But the detectives didn’t stop.
DET. GEORGE FILENKO (interrogation): You’re there. It’s not like there were 50 people in that room with you …
All these years later, Melissa still remembers what it was like being in that room.
Melissa Calusinski: They weren’t listening to anything I said.
After nine hours — under pressure and without an attorney — Melissa changed her story. She says she thought if she told the investigators what they wanted to hear, they would let her go home.
DET. GEORGE FILENKO (interrogation): … We’re not going anywhere until we get the facts here.
Melissa Calusinski: The only way for me to get out was to make a confession, a false confession … I wasn’t thinking at all.
Erin Moriarty: You weren’t thinking of the consequences of doing something like that?
Melissa Calusinski: No. No. … All I could think about was just going home …
DET. SEAN CURRAN (interrogation): He starts acting up. And you get mad at him, and you throw him on the floor.
MELISSA CALUSINSKI: (nods)
DET. GEORGE FILENKO: You threw him on the floor?
MELISSA CALUSINSKI: Yeah … Really hard.
When Melissa was taken to another station for booking, she repeated the same story to another investigator.
MELISSA CALUSINSKI (interrogation): I went like that. (Throws doll down)
After spending 14 hours with police, Melissa Calusinski was arrested for the murder of Benjamin Kingan even though she almost immediately took back the story she told police.
MELISSA CALUSINSKI (in police car): No, I’m innocent.
Melissa’s parents, Paul, and Cheryl Calusinski, still remember receiving the news.
Paul Calusinski: And I said, “what?”
Erin Moriarty: Did you think possibly she had hurt this baby?
Paul Calusinski: Not at all.
Cheryl Calusinski: No.
Paul Calusinski: Nope.
Cheryl Calusinski: Nope. … She is the kind of person that would never —
Paul Calusinski: — harm anybody.
Cheryl Calusinski: — never put her hand on someone else’s child.
But Melissa had told investigators that she did, and after that, the manner of death on Ben’s death certificate was listed as “homicide.” Law enforcement announced they had solved the case.
DETECTIVE ADAM HYDE (to reporters): Miss Calusinski admitted to police that she had taken the infant boy and thrown him on the ground
Crystal Calusinski: They made her look like a bad person. … And she’s not that type of a person.
Melissa’s family would make it their mission to clear her name.
Crystal Calusinski: My parents sold everything that they had …
Paul Calusinski: I … put all my effort into getting her free …
They had no idea how much of a fight they were in for.
QUESTIONING THE EVIDENCE
Stephen Scheller (2014): He was a very … healthy baby. … Just a happy, happy little boy.
In November 2011, nearly three years after the death of Ben Kingan, Melissa Calusinski went on trial for murder. The State argued that Ben was a perfectly healthy toddler leading up to his death. Matthew DeMartini and Stephen Scheller prosecuted the case.
Erin Moriarty (2014): How would you describe what the parents have gone through?
Matthew DeMartini (2014): When somebody takes your child from you, I don’t think there’s any words to describe what they’ve gone through.
Dr. Choi, the pathologist who conducted the autopsy, testified about that skull fracture he said he had seen, and how he believed the child’s injury was recent — and consistent with having been thrown to the floor by someone. But Melissa’s trial attorney, Paul De Luca, told the jury about a head injury Ben had previously received. It was noticed at the day care three months earlier.
Paul De Luca: Melissa was not even working there at the day care center.
After Ben’s death, multiple people — including day care teacher Nancy Kallinger — told investigators about it.
NANCY KALLINGER (police questioning): He got a bump on the back of his head … I mean, we called the mom, the mom called the doctor.
But prosecutor Scheller argued that the earlier injury was insignificant.
Stephen Scheller (2014): The pediatrician actually examined Benjamin’s head, had felt around, um, said there was no issues … that mom should just keep an eye on him. … Ben never had an issue after that.
That’s not what defense experts said. They noted that after the injury, there were possible signs of head trauma. Medical records showed that in the days after the injury, Ben was lethargic and had a persistent fever. And another day care employee, Holly, who asked that we identify her by her first name only, testified for the defense about the last time she saw Ben two days before his death.
Holly: Melissa walked into the room … and she was holding Ben … And she said, like, he’s not feeling well. And it was almost immediately after she said that, that he threw up, like, everywhere.
The next day, one day before he died, Ben was kept home from day care. Prosecutor Matthew DeMartini argued it was a stomach bug or a winter cold.
Matthew DeMartini (2014): He was given Pedialyte and put to bed. He woke up the next day and he was fine.
But the defense maintained that Ben’s prior injury was so serious that any new impact could have had major consequences, and Ben did have a habit of throwing his head back.
Holly: He would be sitting on the ground, and he would just kind of lunge his body backwards and hit his head … You know, I guess you’d call it like he was a head banger.
Nancy Kallinger recalled that Ben had done that twice on the day of his death.
NANCY KALLINGER (police questioning): I put him on the floor, and he immediately threw himself on the floor. … And then I walked towards the sink, and he threw himself again.
Prosecutors insisted that Melissa had hurt Ben.
Stephen Scheller (2014): This child did not explode or implode on his own.
And they pointed to her confession.
Stephen Scheller (2014): She became frustrated holding Ben. She threw him to the floor.
Prosecutors told the jury that the fall was so severe it caused that skull fracture. At trial, they mentioned a “skull fracture” more than 30 times. But was there one? While most of the experts who testified from both sides agreed there appeared to be a fracture in autopsy photos — one defense expert said she couldn’t say for sure. And according to Melissa’s attorney, Paul De Luca, the X-rays the prosecution had provided before the trial were unreadable.
Paul De Luca: Before trial, I said, do we have any better images? And it was no.
The State’s final witness, pathologist Dr. Manny Montez, gave the most vivid and damaging testimony at trial. He said he examined the body and felt the fracture with his bare hands.
Paul De Luca: Dr. Montez said he put his finger … in the skull and through the fracture. … I mean, it was devastating.
The jury deliberated for seven hours before convicting Melissa Calusinski of aggravated battery of a child—and first-degree murder.
Melissa Calusinski: My heart sunk. … I know I didn’t do this.
Melissa’s family remained determined to prove her innocence.
Paul Calusinski: I didn’t accept the verdict. I knew it was wrong.
In 2012, a year after the conviction, Dr. Thomas Rudd — the then-newly elected Lake County Coroner — agreed to review the autopsy evidence at the urging of Melissa’s trial attorney.
Rudd spoke with “48 Hours” about the case in 2014.
Dr. Thomas Rudd: I saw a membrane and I thought, “my God.”
Erin Moriarty: What do you mean when you say you saw a membrane?
Dr. Thomas Rudd: You see a scab. Similar to what forms on your skin, except it’s in the brain. …
Erin Moriarty: This is a slide of a part of this infant’s brain?
Dr. Thomas Rudd: Correct…. By definition, if you have a membrane, you have an old injury.
At Melissa’s trial, Choi had told the jury he observed no sign of an old injury. But according to Rudd, Dr. Choi had simply missed it. He called in Dr. Nancy Jones, a well-regarded pathologist, for a second opinion. And she agreed with Rudd and noted that the old injury had been healing for about two or three months — a time frame consistent with that bump on Ben’s head that was noticed at day care.
Dr. Thomas Rudd: How they let that go is beyond me.
Like the defense experts at trial, doctors Jones and Rudd believed that the old injury was further exacerbated by Ben’s head banging.
Dr. Thomas Rudd: The added fluid of the recent injury … pushes that brain down and shuts down the breathing system. That is the cause of the child’s death. It was the old injury. The old injury was massive.
Rudd phoned the now-retired Choi, who signed a sworn affidavit, conceding that he had “missed that Ben had suffered an old injury.” But he crossed out the word “significant.” And when asked if he would have changed his testimony at trial, Choi said, “no.”
Matthew DeMartini: There’s no indication that anything in there is significant.
But Rudd suspected that Choi may have also been wrong about another major issue in the case: that alleged skull fracture.
Dr. Thomas Rudd: What should have been done was that whole section should have been cut out … to look under the microscope to see if, in fact, it is a skull fracture. … And they didn’t.
Rudd believed what Choi and the other medical experts thought was a skull fracture may have instead been a normal part of Ben’s growing skull, but he couldn’t prove it. Then, in 2015, Melissa’s father said he received an anonymous call that there was a set of X-rays at the coroner’s office that had never been turned over to the defense. When Rudd’s staff searched the computer archives, they came across startling images that were never shown at trial.
Dr. Thomas Rudd: I was dumbfounded. … There’s definitely no skull fracture here.
WERE BEN KINGAN’S X-RAYS MANIPULATED?
Dr. Thomas Rudd (2015): I’ve shown this to various pathologists and a radiologist … They’ve all called me and say, “There is no skull fracture in this child at all.”
In 2015, four years after Melissa Calusinski’s conviction — and shortly after those clear X-rays of Ben Kingan were found — Dr. Rudd changed the manner of death on Ben’s death certificate from “homicide” to “undetermined.” By this point, defense attorney Kathleen Zellner had taken on Melissa’s case.
Kathleen Zellner: I don’t know of a case in America where someone is serving a 31-year prison sentence for a death that was undetermined.
Zellner, who has built a career on getting the wrongfully convicted out of prison, was intent on getting Melissa’s conviction overturned. And in 2016, Melissa was granted an evidentiary hearing to present what Zellner argued was new evidence before Judge Daniel Shanes, the same judge who presided over Melissa’s trial.
Kathleen Zellner: The new evidence was that the images that had been given to Paul De Luca had been darkened.
Remember, the State gave De Luca, Melissa’s trial attorney, a disk containing the dark, unreadable X-rays before trial. At the evidentiary hearing, Rudd testified about finding the clear X-rays — X-rays that he and other defense experts said showed no skull fracture; X-rays that Zellner argued would have changed the outcome of Melissa’s trial.
Kathleen Zellner: The skull fracture … was the pivotal point in the state’s case to … convince the jury it was a homicide …
But at the evidentiary hearing, prosecutors argued that this wasn’t new evidence in the case. They said the disk provided to De Luca had software that could enhance the X-rays and that he simply didn’t do enough to brighten them. De Luca says he couldn’t even open the software.
Paul De Luca: I call in a secretary … I call in somebody else in the office … no one could get any better images.
Zellner, with the help of an imaging expert, argued that it didn’t matter what De Luca did — that the X-rays that he had been given had been modified and were inferior to the ones on the coroner’s office computer. She also called a witness whom she believed raised more questions about the prosecution’s case: Paul Forman, the deputy coroner during Ben Kingan’s autopsies. Forman disputed the testimony of one of the most important witnesses at Melissa’s trial — Dr. Manny Montez. Remember, Montez was the State’s final witness who testified that he felt a fracture in Ben Kingan’s skull.
But Forman, who said he was there when Montez came to the coroner’s office, testified that Montez never physically examined Ben’s body or actually touched the child’s skull.
Erin Moriarty (2016): Could he have somehow gone in and looked at Ben’s body, examined the body without you knowing?
Paul Forman (2016): No, I was with him from the moment he came in the door to the moment he left.
The State tried to discredit Forman by questioning his memory as well as his mental health. Forman told “48 Hours” he had been treated for bipolar disorder and depression.
Paul Forman: Well, it was a personal attack.
But Forman wasn’t the only defense witness who raised questions about Montez’s testimony. Dr. Robert Zimmerman, a renowned pediatric neuroradiologist who examined the readable X-rays, testified that if that skull fracture had existed, it would be clearly visible.
Dr. Robert Zimmerman (outside of courthouse): It wasn’t there on the X-ray, so I don’t think he could’ve actually seen it.
But prosecutors stood by their trial witnesses — doctors Montez and Choi — who said they saw and felt a skull fracture. “48 Hours” reached out to both doctors for this broadcast, but they did not respond to our requests for comment. When the evidentiary hearing ended, Judge Shanes ruled against Melissa.
In his ruling, Judge Shanes stated that he didn’t find Forman’s testimony regarding Montez credible. And he agreed with the State that De Luca could have brightened the X-rays and made them readable. It was another letdown for Melissa and her family.
Melissa Calusinski: You clearly made a mistake. (Crying) … I just don’t understand.
Zellner appealed the ruling, but again, a disappointment. And then, four years later, in 2022, there was a development that few saw coming. Eric Rinehart, a new state’s attorney in Lake County — the county where Melissa was convicted — had taken office. Zellner says he wanted more information on the discrepancy over the X-rays, so he recommended she retain the digital forensics company, Garrett Discovery.
Kathleen Zellner: We paid for them, but he recommended them.
Andrew Garrett is the CEO of Garrett Discovery. Brian Bowman is a digital forensics expert who works for him. They concluded the X-rays were manipulated by someone using a software tool used to view X-rays.
Erin Moriarty: How did Paul De Luca, the defense attorney, end up with these very dark pictures?
Andrew Garrett (at computer with X-ray on monitor): I can show you. So, if I take these sliders here and I drag ’em all the way down or all the way up, you can manipulate this photo. … So, somebody went in, and they altered the contrast to make it look like that on screen, and then exported that file …
Erin Moriarty: On the coroner’s computer?
Andrew Garrett: On the coroner’s computer.
Bowman agrees there was little De Luca could do.
Brian Bowman: The defense counsel could have adjusted some of the contrast on the JPEGs that they were given. But they couldn’t make the images bigger, and they wouldn’t be able to go in and zoom into the depth and have the clarity of the image that the original is.
But if Ben Kingan’s X-rays were manipulated, who did it? In their report, Garrett and Bowman pointed to the State.
Erin Moriarty: You put in here, the State adjusted the settings of the images that resulted in black, washed-out images … You’re saying that either the prosecutor’s office or the coroner’s office, but somebody representing the State did this?
Andrew Garrett: Yes.
Brian Bowman: Yes.
Andrew Garrett: This is not a kiosk computer sitting in a lobby. This is in their custody and control. You have to be in the coroner’s office to get access to this.
WAS MELISSA CALUSINSKI’S CONFESSION COERCED?
In late 2022, when Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart met with the forensic experts — experts he recommended — and learned of their findings, attorneys Kathleen Zellner and Paul De Luca were also there.
Kathleen Zellner: Eric was just indignant … He was saying, whoever had done this manipulation should be held accountable. … I believed after the meeting … that he believed in Melissa’s innocence, and he was going to try to rectify this.
Paul De Luca: I thought he was gonna do something about it.
But nothing happened, say Zellner and De Luca. And as the months stretched on, Zellner decided to also look more closely at Melissa’s confession.
Kathleen Zellner: That’s the only evidence against her … there’s nothing that tips this as being a homicide. Absolutely nothing.
Zellner asked Dr. Saul Kassin, a psychology professor and leading expert on false confessions, to review the case. Dr. Kassin had first analyzed the interrogation back in 2016, when he was a CBS News consultant. He told us then — and now — that it appears police went into that room determined to get a confession.
DET. SEAN CURRAN (interrogation): The reason that we were called in on this incident is ’cause Ben’s skull was fractured …
DET. SEAN CURRAN: What we need to know right now is if this was done by accident or did somebody intentionally hurt him?
MELISSA CALUSINSKI: Yeah. I — I would never put my hands on him …
Saul Kassin: Her denials were emphatic.
MELISSA CALUSINSKI (interrogation): I never put my hand on a child, ever.
Saul Kassin: … And they plowed over all of them.
DET. GEORGE FILENKO (interrogation): …You know what medical evidence is, it just doesn’t lie, OK?
MELISSA CALUSINSKI: Yeah.
Remember, a detective reported that during the autopsy, the pathologist, Dr. Choi, told him that Ben had a skull fracture, and that the injury was recent and was caused by another person, using strong force.
DET. GEORGE FILENKO (interrogation): They did an autopsy on Ben.
MELISSA CALUSINSKI: Yeah …
DET. GEORGE FILENKO: We’re talking a skull fracture …
DET. SEAN CURRAN: There’s — sometimes accidents happen, and I mean, they’re unavoidable.
Saul Kassin: They launch into an accident scenario.
MELISSA CALUSINSKI (interrogation): …I did not drop him.
DET. SEAN CURRAN: Did you lose your patience and hit him?
MELISSA CALUSINSKI: No.
DET. SEAN CURRAN: Did you push him into a wall?
MELISSA CALUSINSKI: Uh-uh. (shakes her head no)
After nearly six hours with investigators —
DET. GEORGE FILENKO (interrogation): You didn’t come to work that day with the intent of hurting anybody.
— Melissa told them it was an accident.
DET. SEAN CURRAN (interrogation): Did you drop the baby?
MELISSA CALUSINSKI: Yes. … I wasn’t paying attention and he slipped out of my hands …
But that didn’t satisfy the detectives who had left the room periodically to phone Dr. Choi.
DET. SEAN CURRAN (interrogation): …That story you’re giving us is a load of s***…
DET. GEORGE FILENKO: There is no way, no way that that would have caused that traumatic of an injury.
DET. GEORGE FILENKO: All you need to do is tell us the truth and we’re done.
Saul Kassin: They’re not saying nothing will happen to you, but it’s implied.
After nine hours in that room, the investigators were finally getting Melissa to tell a story that could account for a skull fracture.
DET. GEORGE FILENKO (interrogation): You were angry.
MELISSA CALUSINSKI: I was angry and aggravated.
DET. GEORGE FILENKO: Show us how angry you were and show us what happened, and let’s just get this over with and move on.
MELISSA CALUSINSKI: OK. So I got angry.
DET. GEORGE FILENKO: Yeah.
MELISSA CALUSINSKI: And I went, “boom.”
DET. SEAN CURRAN: I — I’m gonna tell you something right now.
MELISSA CALUSINSKI: OK.
DET. SEAN CURRAN: This is very specific.
MELISSA CALUSINSKI: OK.
DET. SEAN CURRAN: This is gonna leave a specific mark.
MELISSA CALUSINSKI: Like a fracture.
Then, they gave Melissa a scenario of why she got angry —
DET. SEAN CURRAN (interrogation): We think in this situation, the other babies are screaming, crying …
— and what she did.
DET. SEAN CURRAN: He starts acting up and, you get mad at him, and you throw him on the floor …
MELISSA CALUSINSKI: (Melissa nods)
DET. GEORGE FILENKO: You threw him on the floor?
MELISSA CALUSINSKI: Yeah.
Saul Kassin: She needs to get out of there. She can’t take it anymore.
MELISSA CALUSINSKI (interrogation): I am so sorry.
DET. GEORGE FILENKO: OK. We understand.
The detectives who interrogated Melissa did not respond to “48 Hours”‘ request for comment. Kassin raises concerns about how long Melissa was in that room—approximately 10 hours—and how particularly vulnerable she was. About two-and-a-half years before Ben Kingan’s death, Melissa had reported she was raped.
Saul Kassin: She was enclosed in a small space, pinned down and sexually assaulted. Now she’s pinned into the corner of a room. … I can only imagine that while this would be normally stressful for the average person, it would be even more stressful for somebody with that history.
The defense recently had Melissa evaluated by a psychologist and psychiatrist. They diagnosed her with post-traumatic stress disorder. They also assessed her as having borderline intellectual functioning. She scored at a 4.8 grade level in sentence comprehension, which could help explain why she believed she could go home — even after she had confessed to murder.
MELISSA CALUSINSKI (interrogation): I’m just kind of curious, how long, much more, ’cause …?
DET. GEORGE FILENKO: Not much longer, we’re on the phone right now. We’re trying to get this done as quickly as possible.
MELISSA CALUSINSKI: Because I just want to go home and spend time with my parents and my puppy.
Saul Kassin: She had no idea what was happening. … The confession, in my mind, is worthless. … There are multiple reasons why she might have given this confession. … This isn’t just a vulnerable suspect. It isn’t just interrogation tactics that are highly deceptive. It’s both.
The jury at Melissa’s trial heard about her low IQ. But the judge would not allow a false confession expert to testify. Zellner believes that testimony might have changed the verdict.
Erin Moriarty: If Melissa Calusinski had not walked into that room, if she had insisted on an attorney, would she be in prison today?
Kathleen Zellner: No, absolutely not. They had absolutely nothing. There’s no eyewitness. There was no video. … The reason Melissa Calusinski got charged is she confessed.
But if Melissa didn’t harm Ben Kingan, what happened to the toddler? It raises more questions about that earlier injury — the one that was discovered at the day care months before his death. Several employees there remembered a co-worker.
CRYSTAL CALUSINSKI (interrogation): She was working there at that — at that time when that happened. Her name is Brenda.
NANCY KALLINGER (interrogation): What I believe, I only heard, I didn’t see anything, is that she put him in the crib, and I believe he threw himself back. … She quit the day after.
Brenda didn’t testify at Melissa’s trial, and the defense was never able to track her down. But “48 Hours” did.
MAKING THE CASE FOR MELISSA’S FREEDOM
Melissa Calusinski was interrogated for hours about the injury Ben Kingan received just before his death. But what about the day care worker who was reported to be with Ben a few months earlier, when he got a lump on his head? She didn’t return “48 Hours”‘ calls. But when we located her, she agreed to speak to us on the condition we obscure her face and identify her only by Brenda, her first name.
Erin Moriarty: On October 27, 2008, there was a report of an injury on Ben Kingan … Do you remember that?
Brenda: No, I don’t.
Erin Moriarty: The way it’s been described is — from some people — is that Ben was with you, and you were putting him in the bed, they heard a bump and — and then he had a bump on the back of his head.
Brenda: No.
Erin Moriarty: Did that happen with you?
Brenda: No.
Erin Moriarty: But you did stop working the very next day?
Brenda: I did. I was just kind of tired of being there. … I don’t recall a bump and I don’t recall ever bumping him.
Erin Moriarty: So, do you say it didn’t happen or you don’t remember it happening?
Brenda: No, it didn’t happen.
Brenda has never been charged with harming Ben intentionally or accidentally. But attorney Kathleen Zellner is adamant that Ben sustained a serious injury that day.
Kathleen Zellner: I think that his parents … were misled by the day care center about that incident.
And according to police reports, it wouldn’t be the first time that the day care allegedly tried to cover up the seriousness of a child’s injury. The day care was shut down by state authorities shortly after Ben died.
In April 2024, more than 12 years after Melissa’s conviction — with no success in the court system — Zellner filed a clemency petition asking Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker to exonerate Melissa or release her for time served.
Kathleen Zellner: I believe this is her best chance for freedom.
Before a scheduled hearing, Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart spoke to an attorney representing Ben Kingan’s family, and then, he wrote a letter to the prisoner review board stating his office “strongly opposes Melissa’s clemency petition.”
Erin Moriarty: Were you shocked by that?
Kathleen Zellner: Totally. … I believe he thinks in his heart that she’s innocent.
Rinehart would not do an on-camera interview or speak to “48 Hours” on the record, but in that letter to the board, he stated that there is no new evidence in the case and that “Melissa’s petition for clemency does not establish” innocence. On July 9, 2024, Zellner went before the prisoner review board to make her case for Melissa’s freedom.
KATHLEEN ZELLNER (at clemency hearing): What we want to do today is focus on who is this person, and how did she end up in the position that she’s in, convicted of the first-degree murder of a child.
But also there, making an impassioned plea, were Ben Kingan’s parents.
AMY KINGAN (at clemency hearing): My name is Amy Kingan and I am here with my husband, Andy. We are the parents of Benjamin Kingan who was murdered when Melissa Calusinski threw Ben to the ground, fracturing his skull … Because of her actions, Andy and I are adamantly opposed to Melissa Calusinski’s release … We continue to read about how there’s no justice for Melissa. But where is the justice for Ben, and for Andy and myself and our surviving children …? … We hope that you, as the prison review board, and the governor, will deny her petition for clemency.
Amy and Andy Kingan declined “48 Hours”‘ request for an interview. Following Amy Kingan’s statement, Zellner was then given the chance to respond.
KATHLEEN ZELLNER (at clemency hearing): …There is no question that the death of a child is probably the worst thing that could ever happen to a parent, but … The only way that a parent gets closure is with the truth. And the truth has not come out on this case … I know that she is innocent.
After the hearing, it was up to the prisoner review board to make a confidential recommendation to Gov. Pritzker as to whether Melissa should be released.
Erin Moriarty: If you had a chance to talk to Governor Pritzker yourself—
Melissa Calusinski: Mm-hmm
Erin Moriarty: — what would you say?
Melissa Calusinski: I would say, just please look at my case … I didn’t do this.
Holly, who worked at the day care with Melissa, believes her so much so that she wrote this letter to the governor:
Holly (reading letter): From the time Melissa was arrested for Benjamin’s murder, I have always thought she was innocent. … The evidence does not point to Melissa.
Holly: I can only imagine how Ben’s family is gonna feel, knowing that I’m saying Melissa is innocent. (crying) … But an innocent person should not be in jail.
When “48 Hours” first met the Calusinski family in 2014, five years after Melissa’s arrest, they still had her bedroom set up. Today, that room is still set up just as it was. Paul and Cheryl Calusinski haven’t given up hope that their daughter will be home soon.
Paul Calusinski: She’s daddy’s little girl. (cries)
Cheryl Calusinski: She is.
Paul Calusinski: We did everything together.
Cheryl Calusinski: And we’re just gonna keep on until she comes home.
The Prisoner Review Board made its confidential recommendation to Gov. Pritzker in January 2025. There is no deadline for the governor to act.
Produced by Stephanie Slifer. Richard Barber is the producer-editor. Alicia Tejada is the coordinating producer. Grayce Arlotta-Berner is the editor. Charlotte Fuller is the development producer. Lourdes Aguiar is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.
The Michigan State Spartans are set to take on one of their bigger threats to the Big Ten in the Illinois Fighting Illini on Sunday. While MSU sits atop the Big Ten standings, Illinois has a team that can easily climb the ranks, that is, depending on what version Illinois decides to be against the Spartans.
The Fighting Illini have had a confusing season thus far. Predicted to be one of the biggest threats to other conference competitors, they haven’t necessarily lived up to the hype. But at the same time, they have. Going into the game with MSU, Illinois holds a 13-4 record.
The theme revolving around the Fighting Illini this season has been back-and-forth victories. For example, the team blew out the Oregon Ducks 109-77, a Ducks team that has only lost two games this season. The juggernauts on the team came to play in that game, but when they face off against a lesser threat, they seem to let their guard down.
Their most recent loss came against USC, a team that sits three games back out of first place. Sloppiness has come back to bite the Fighting Illini in the backside when they face teams they are predicted to play well against.
As for MSU, the program could have a lot on their plate given the track record the Fighting Illini have when facing opponents who hold a better record than them. Following the theme, Illinois lost to USC and then won their following game against Indiana in a 94-69 blowout. What does that mean for the Spartans?
MSU has looked unstoppable as of late, yet Coach Tom Izzo believes the team still has a lot to learn and that they shouldn’t get complacent. The way that the Spartans are playing, it would be a huge blow to Illinois if they lost the game and fell three games back of them in the Big Ten standings.
Best-case scenario for the Spartans is to prepare themselves as if they know that Illinois will bring their best effort to knock them off of their winning streak. But it should be easy to tell early what type of Fighting Illini team will come to play against MSU on Sunday.
Don’t forget to follow the official Spartan Nation Page on Facebook Spartan NationWHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE, and be a part of our vibrant community group Go Green Go White as wellWHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE.
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